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ECHOES 

FROM 

THE SONG OF SONGS. 



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ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. 



ECHOES 

FROM 

THE SONG OF SONGS, 

WHICH IS SOLOMON'S. 




MRS. MARGARETTA HOPPER. 




NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
530 Broadway. 



V vV\ 



Copyright, 1887, 
By Robert Carter and Brothers. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



ECHOES 



FROM 

THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS 
SOLOMON'S. 



JN i Kings iv. 32, we are told that Solomon 
wrote one thousand and five songs. This 
one is called " The Song of Songs," and it 
well deserves its title. 

There are various interpretations of the 
meaning of the Song as given by different 
scholars ; but the most of them see in its 
description of a courtship and marriage a 
symbol of the loves between Christ and His 
bride, the Church, whose full and complete 
union will be accomplished when all the 
Church shall be gathered together, and be 
seen " coming down out of Heaven from 
God/' — which the apostle John saw in vision 



6 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



when the angel talked with him, saying, 
" Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, 
the wife of the Lamb." 1 

As the forty-nfth Psalm of David is called 
"A Song of Loves " and is generally sup- 
posed to apply to Christ as the Bridegroom 
espousing the Church, so Solomon in his 
" Song of Songs " carries out the same idea. 

As David says, in the thirteenth and four- 
teenth verses of this same Psalm, — 

The King's daughter within the palace is all glorious; 
Her clothing is inwrought with gold. 
She shall be led unto the King in broidered work ; 
The virgins her companions that follow her 
Shall be brought unto Thee, — 

so Solomon describes the beauty of the 
bride, and her attire, in the seventh chapter 
of this Song, and also speaks of the virgins 
her companions in various parts of it. 
Christ's parable of the Ten Virgins, in the 
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, based on 
the customs of the marriage ceremonies of the 
East, may have had an allusion to this song. 

1 Revelation xxi. 9, 10. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 7 

The Song is full of Eastern symbols and 
orientalisms, and compared with the poetic ex- 
pressions of those times and places in which 
it was composed, it is not extravagant. The 
scene of the Song is laid on Mount Lebanon. 

Among the Jews a wedding was considered 
as a mystical rite. This Song represents 
wedded love, as the strongest earthly love 
that can be expressed. It was composed for 
the Jewish Church, and as God had entered 
into a covenant with Israel, and had termed 
it a marriage covenant, calling His people His 
bride, — " For thy Maker is thine husband; 
The Lord of hosts is His name; and the Holy 
one of Israel is thy Redeemer," 1 — they 
could easily understand the spiritual meaning 
of the Song. 

Solomon, according to his nature and dis- 
position, in writing on such a theme would 
naturally express himself with the full warmth 
of the age and clime in which he lived. 

It is probable, as many suppose, that 
Solomon wrote the Song in his latter days, 

1 Isaiah liv. 5. 



8 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



after his return from his sinful course to the 
path of wisdom ; for when the Lord visited 
Solomon, as recorded in I Kings xi. 9, and 
reproved him for his great wickedness, it was 
for the purpose of bringing him to repent- 
ance, — for God, who had put wisdom into his 
heart, would not suffer him to be utterly cast 
off ; and although it is recorded in 1 Kings x. 
24, that " when Solomon was old, his wives 
turned away his heart after other gods," and 
in 1 Kings xi. 4, " his heart was not perfect 
with the Lord his God,'' and in Nehemiah 
xiii. 26, "nevertheless even him did outland- 
ish women cause to sin," — yet in the same 
verse of Nehemiah it is said, "Among many 
nations was there no king like him, and he 
was beloved of his God." 

National sins receive national punishments. 
Individuals are punished for their individual 
sins ; but, in either case, when individuals 
or nations repent and turn to God, they will 
be forgiven ; but God will not work a mir- 
acle to avert the consequences that must fol- 
low the sin committed. David repented of 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 9 

his great sin, and wrote many of his most 
beautiful Psalms after it; but he could not 
escape the consequences of his guilt ; as 
Nathan told him, " The sword shall never 
depart from thine house." 1 Solomon's idol- 
atry caused the downfall of his kingdom, but 
his soul may have found forgiveness with 
God ; for judging by his Ecclesiastes, espe- 
cially in chap. vii. 25, 26, and also by his warn- 
ings to others throughout the book, doubtless 
he had deeply repented of his great wicked- 
ness. The record of his restoration is given 
in Ecclesiastes xii. 13, 14, and he who had 
had much forgiven would love much, as 
Christ affirmed in Luke vii. 43. 

The heart must be full of love to Christ to 
read this book aright, and to appreciate its 
excellence and spiritual import, or to be able 
to join in its fervent expressions of holy love. 

Its beautiful imagery, peculiar to the age 
and country, must also be received in a spir- 
itual sense ; for we receive similar imagery 
taken from the person, the marriage relation, 

1 2 Samuel xii. 10. 



IO ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

and many other illustrations in various parts 
of the Bible ; for instance, the forty-fifth 
Psalm is called a " Psalm of Loves," which 
love is supposed to exist between Christ and 
His spouse, the Church. The simile of the 
vineyard, and of the garden as the field of 
the Church's work, which must bring forth 
its fruits with God's blessing on the work, is 
used in Isaiah v. 1,7; and that of the vine 
in Psalm lxxx. 8, and in Ezekiel xvii. 8 ; and 
the fragrance of the vine as the smell of 
Lebanon, in Hosea xiv. 6, 7. 

In the New Testament, in Matthew xxi. 
33, Christ illustrates His kingdom on earth 
by the parable of the vineyard, which the 
householder planted, and hedged about, and 
let out to husbandmen, who must yield its 
fruits to the owner. 

The simile of the marriage relation is fre- 
quently used in Scripture to show Christ's 
union with His Church, and their mutual 
love, as in Isaiah liv. 5, and lxii. 4, 5. In 
Ezekiel xvi. 8-14, we find the marriage cove- 
nant, the decorations God gives to His bride, 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 1 1 



and the perfection of beauty with which He 
crowns her. " Now when I passed by thee, 
and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was 
the time of love ; and I spread my skirt over 
thee, and covered thy nakedness : yea, I 
sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant 
with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou be- 
camest mine. Then washed I thee with 
water ; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy 
blood from thee, and I anointed thee with 
oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, 
and shod thee with sealskin, and I girded 
thee about with fine linen, and covered thee 
with silk. I decked thee also with orna- 
ments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, 
and a chain on thy neck. And I put a ring 
upon thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, 
and a beautiful crown upon thine head. 

" Thus wast thou decked with gold and 
silver ; and thy raiment was of fine linen, 
and silk, and broidered work ; thou didst eat 
fine flour, and honey, and oil ; and thou wast 
exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper 
unto royal estate. 



12 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



" And thy renown went forth among the 
nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect, 
through my majesty, which I had put upon 
thee, saith the Lord God." 

Thus also, in the Song, all the beauty and 
the decorations of the bride come from Him. 
In the New Testament, John iii. 29, we have 
the image of the bride and Bridegroom, as 
representing Christ and His Church. Paul 
uses the same symbol in Romans vii. 4, 
2 Corinthians xi. 2, Ephesians v. 27-32 ; and 
in Revelation xix. 7 the angels rejoice in 
witnessing the marriage of the Lamb. " Let 
us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us 
give the glory unto Him : for the marriage of 
the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made 
herself ready." 

The allusion in the Song to the navel and 
the breasts as the seat of strength and nour- 
ishing power is found also in Proverbs iii. 8, 
and in Isaiah lxvi. 11 ; that also to the sig- 
net and the seal, in Isaiah xlix. 16, and in 
Haggai ii. 23. The likeness to " a well of 
living waters," representing the gifts and 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 3 

graces imparted by the Holy Spirit, and as 
flowing out from the Church, and springing 
up unto eternal life, is given us by our Sav- 
iour, in His talk with the Samaritan woman. 1 

Thus we find that a great proportion of 
the similes in this beautiful Song are re- 
peated in other parts of the Holy Scriptures 
of both the Old and the New Testaments. 

Sometimes, in the Song, the Church of 
Christ is represented by a single individual, 
the bride of Christ ; but as it is a collective 
body, the individuals who compose it are 
sometimes called the " virgins her compan- 
ions," as in Christ's parable of the Ten 
Virgins. 2 

In the Jewish ecclesiastical polity, the be- 
trothed was considered in one sense as es- 
poused, and could not be released from the 
engagement without a bill of divorce; and 
throughout the Song the terms expressing 
the betrothed and the espoused are used 
synonymously until the marriage is fully 
consummated. 

1 John iv. 10, 14. 2 Matthew xxv. 1-10. 



CHAPTER I. 



i. i. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. 



HE Song commences with an outburst 



from the betrothed of passionate long- 
ing for her Beloved. She is so filled with 
admiration of His majesty, and with love 
and gratitude because He has chosen her, 
that she asks for the natural token of His 
endeared love : — 

2. Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, 
For Thy love is better than wine. 

Of course she means the kiss upon her 
mouth. A kiss upon the forehead might 
show His great condescension, but would 
not express that sympathetic love for which 
she longed. 

A kiss upon the hand was one often given 
to a superior when asking a favor, or in grat- 
itude for one received ; but a kiss upon the 




ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. \ 5 

mouth is the kiss of love, and is the only 
kiss to which she could give an instant re- 
turn, and thus express their mutual love. 

His love thus manifested to her not only 
cheers and animates, but is more enduring 
in its effects than wine, which exhilarates 
but for a moment. 

So the soul when newly awakened and 
drawn to Christ, longs for some token of as- 
surance that it is accepted, and the heart 
leaps with joy when one can say, " My Beloved 
is mine and I am His." 

By this nearness to Him, the betrothed 
inhales the odor of the King's ointments 
and says, — 

3. Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance ; 
Thy name is as ointment poured forth ; 
Therefore do the virgins love Thee. 

In the East perfume was always so greatly 
esteemed as to be considered almost a neces- 
sity. The attar of Damascus, the balsams 
and aloes of Lebanon, and the spices of the 
gardens of Palestine were all brought into 
requisition for the compounding of oint- 



1 6 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

ments to anoint the person, and to perfume 
the clothes. They were also considered as 
valuable articles of commerce. 

These ointments of the Bridegroom were 
the choicest of their kind, such as a king 
would use. To the bride they were more 
precious than to all others, because they 
expressed His love to her and His desire to 
please her. 

To Christ's Church these ointments repre- 
sent the perfume of His character and the 
sweetness of His work. They are such as 
cannot be concealed ; their fragrance is car- 
ried on every wind, and every one who 
breathes the odor is invigorated with new 
life. The nearer the Church gets to Christ, 
the source of this sweetness, and the more 
she breathes this unction of the Holy Spirit, 
the more the fragrance will permeate her. 
It is by this sweetness that the Bridegroom 
draws His bride unto Himself. Paul calls 
Christ's offering of Himself for us "a sacri- 
fice to God for an odor of a sweet smell." 1 

1 Ephesians, v. 2. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 7 

And His Church can say, " As washed in the 
blood of the Lamb we are a sweet savor of 
Christ unto God." 1 Thus all the fragrance 
of the Church comes from His Spirit resting 
upon her. Then His name is to her as oint- 
ment poured forth. 

Desiring to be kept continually near Him, 
knowing her own weakness, and fearing she 
may lose the odor of His ointments, she 
prays Him, — 

4. Draw me ; we will run after Thee, — 

the " we " meaning also the virgins her 
companions; thus indicating the body of 
Christ's Church. The world do not wish 
to be drawn to Christ. " They see no beauty 
in Him that they should desire Him." Not 
so His Church ; but, as the bee, in seeking 
honey, is attracted by the perfume of the 
flowers, and flies in its pursuit with unwear- 
ied wing, so will she haste, in her eagerness 
of desire, to run after the Bridegroom. 
The King has not only granted her re- 

1 2 Corinthians ii. xv. 



IS ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 



quest, but has brought her into intimate 

relations with Himself, for she savs. — 

4. The King hath brought me into His chambers. — 

that is, into His own household, as one of 
His family. She is filled with gratitude, and 
testifies to all around the magnitude of His 
love : — 

4. We will be glad and rejoice in Thee, 

We will make mention of Thy love more than 

of w T ine ; 
Rightly do they love Thee. 

It is not a mere effervescence of feeling 
which His love produces. When the Church's 
pulse throbs in unison with the heart of her 
Divine Bridegroom, His love fills her heart ; 
she extols His name and sings His praises, 
and with all her powers endeavors to induce 
others to become part with her in her union 
with her Bridegroom. His cords of love bind 
indissolubly, and He is her exceeding joy, as 
David expressed it in the forty-third Psalm 
and fourth verse. To her He is all majesty 
and beauty ; and while she rejoices in her 
union with Him, she also is humble in view 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



15 



of her imperfections, as she contrasts them 
with His perfectness. She acknowledges, — 

5. I am black, but comely, 

O ye daughters of Jerusalem, 

As the tents of Kedar, 

As the curtains of Solomon. 

These daughters whom she addresses are 
not supposed to be the virgins, companions 
of the bride, but, although of Jerusalem, are 
not of the body of Christ's Church. She 
tells them she is like " the tents of Kedar." 

Kedar was the name of a conspicuous 
tribe of Bedoween Arabs, 1 descended, it is 
supposed, from Ishmael's second son. Their 
tents were usually black or brown on the 
outside, and were made from the hairy skins of 
their black goats ; but though rough and coarse 
without, they were often lined with gayly 
colored satin, and ornamented with precious 
stones, and so within they were " comely as 
the curtains of Solomon." Thus, although 
to the world the Church may appear exter- 
nally without comeliness, within, the lustre 

1 Ezekiel xxvii. 21. 



20 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

of Christ's righteousness radiating from her 
is greater than that of precious stones. 

The very meekness and gentleness of the 
Church arouses the hatred of the worldling, 
therefore the world persecutes the Church. 
Isaiah prophesied of Christ, " He was de- 
spised and rejected of men." 1 

Christ said to His disciples : " If the world 
hate you, ye know that it hated Me before 
it hated you. If they have persecuted Me, 
they will also persecute you." 2 Therefore 
His Church cannot expect any better treat- 
ment from the enemies of her Lord. 

The bride entreats the daughters not to look 
with uncharitable eye upon her blemishes. 

6. Look not upon me because I am swarthy, 
Because the sun hath looked upon me. 
My mother's sons were incensed against me, 
They made me keeper of the vineyards. 

They who were rich and powerful, or were 
false brethren, put upon her such laborious 
and troublesome service that she said, — 

6. But mine own vineyard have I not kept. 
1 Isaiah liii. 3. 2 John xv. 18, 20. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS.^ 21 

When the Church is working in the world 
to bring others to Christ, she must not neglect 
that communion with her Beloved which is 
necessary to keep her pure and strong ; for if 
she does not cultivate her own graces, she 
may become self-righteous or fanatical and 
formal, and consequently lose that rest and 
peace which His service gives. She must 
return to the Bridegroom, who not only 
says, " Go work to-day in my vineyard," 1 but 
who also says to His disciples, " Come ye 
yourselves apart and rest awhile." 2 

It is in the green pastures, and beside the 
still waters, where the Shepherd feeds His 
flock, that she must seek Him, under the shade 
of the overhanging trees along the margin. 
This is the comfort and repose His grace 
affords. Where He rests, she may rest also. 

Now, seeing her own vineyard neglected, 
the bride returns and seeks the Bridegroom. 

7. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, 

Where Thou feedest Thy flock, where Thou 
makest it to rest at noon : 

1 Matthew xxi. 28. 2 Mark vi. 31. 



J 



22 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

For why should I be as one that is veiled 
Beside the flocks of Thy companions ? 

In His presence she would need no veil, and 
with Him she would find the peace and com- 
fort which she sought. 

As she repents of her neglect and her wan- 
derings, He graciously shows her the way to 
return. 

8. If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, 
Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, 
And feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents. 

Her Beloved does not call her black, but 
superlatively beautiful. All the workers in 
His vineyard are precious in His sight. It is 
the lowly workers who shall be commended 
by the Bridegroom when He comes, and then 
be called to come up higher, and to sit with 
Him in heavenly places. Such loving work 
He gives to gentle workers, — to feed the kids ; 
as He said to repentant Peter, " Feed My 
lambs." 1 

Obeying His counsel, her love revives with 
renewed force, and there is a mutual inter- 

1 John xxi. 1 6. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 23 

change of endearments between the betrothed. 
The Bridegroom becomes to her power and 
strength as well as beauty. She says, — 

9. I have compared Thee, O my love, 
To the steeds in Pharaoh's chariots. 

These steeds were war-horses, and were 
used with great effect in battle. The best 
horses came from Egypt, and no doubt King 
Pharaoh's were the best to be obtained, and 
noted for strength and symmetry. She adds, 

10. Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair, 
Thy neck with strings of jewels." 

In the East the horses were decorated 
according to their owners' means, especially 
when going into battle. Chains of gold, with 
pearls and other precious stones, were then 
hung about their heads and necks, and by 
their value indicated the wealth of the 
owner ; in battle they and their decorations 
became the spoils of the victors. 

Her Bridegroom was invincible for her de- 
fence in times of peril, and able to overcome 
all His and her enemies. 



24 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

Thus the Church looks to Christ as her 
royal conqueror, and through Him she will 
come off victorious in every trial. 

The Bridegroom responds to His bride's 
expressions of love and appreciation, with 
promises of liberal gifts. He says, — 

ii. We will make thee plaits of gold 
With studs of silver. 

He will decorate her with beautiful orna- 
ments ; a golden band, fastened with silver, 
as if to bind her to Plim more firmly. She 
shall no more be called black. No persecu- 
tion shall be able to drive her from Him. 

The bride shows her love and gratitude in 
return, by giving offerings to Him. Thus — 

12. While the King sat at His table, 

My spikenard sent forth its fragrance. 

It was the custom in the East to perfume 
with aromatics a distinguished guest. Spike- 
nard was the kind of precious ointment Mary 
used when she anointed Jesus, while sitting 
in the midst of the guests. " Then took 
Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 2$ 

costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and 
wiped His feet with her hair : and the house 
was filled with the odor of the ointment/' 1 
This costly ointment is supposed by some 
scholars to be made from the plant Valeriana 
Jattamansi, and was imported from the moun- 
tains of India which overhang the Ganges. 
Roberts says, " The aroma is found principally 
in the roots of the plant, and when bruised or 
trampled upon, the air is filled with its fra- 
grance." It is a fit emblem of the Church, 
which when persecuted exhibits more abound- 
ing virtues. 

As this costly perfume was no mean gift 
which the bride, through love, bestowed upon 
her guest, so the more the Church loves 
Christ, the more ready she will be to give Him 
the best she has. He comes to her perfumed 
with " goodly fragrance " poured forth in rich 
abundance ; and when He sits with her at 
His table, then her gifts to Him should be most 
generous. There will be no need to publish 
what she does ; her spikenard will send forth 

1 John xii. 3. 



26 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

its fragrance, as surely as His presence will 
be known by the odor of His name. 

Her Bridegroom's loving words have drawn 
her closer to Him. He is to her as the 
source of all excellence, and a treasure near- 
est her heart; as she says, — 

13. My Beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh. 
That lieth betwixt my breasts. 

A sprig of myrrh, among Eastern women, 
was a favorite flower to wear in the bosom. 
Its perfume was considered as a purifier, and 
conducive to health. Myrrh was one of the 
ingredients of the holy anointing oil, 1 and 
also one of the gifts which the wise men of 
the East brought to Jesus soon after His 
birth. 2 

She also compares Him to another flower 
full of fragrance and meaning : ■ — 

14. My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna 
flowers 

In the vineyards of En-gedi. 
u Henna," in the margin, is " copher," — ■ 
the same word, Matthew Henry says, that 

1 Exodus xxx. 23. 2 Matthew ii. n. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 2J 

signifies atonement or propitiation. Others 
translate it " cypress," an odoriferous plant 
growing in the regions of Judea. But what- 
ever the w r ord means, her Beloved was to 
her, as Christ is to His Church, that which 
all these beautiful and fragrant clusters 
expressed, — sweetness, delight, health, puri- 
fication, atonement, and a comfort in dark- 
ness and trials, as well as the source of all 
joy and prosperity. 

In such a nearness to the bridegroom 
He sees her beauty more perfectly, and 
commends her : — 

15. Behold, thou art fair, my love ; behold, 
thou art fair. 

He repeats it, as if to give her a double 
assurance of his appreciation, then adds, — 

15. Thine eyes are as doves. 

Her eyes, those windows of her soul, ex- 
press the character within, — gentle, loving, 
harmless ; not the eyes of which Solomon 
speaks that cause sorrow, 1 but the eyes of a 

1 Proverbs x. 10. 



28 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



dove, the most affectionate and endearing of 
fowls. The dove was the form the Holy Ghost 
took when He descended upon our Saviour 
at His baptism. " I saw the Spirit descend- 
ing from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon 
Him." 1 It was also the fowl chosen of God, 
on account of its innocence and purity, to be 
offered in sacrifice: "And if his oblation to 
the Lord be a burnt-offering of fowls, then he 
shall offer his oblation of turtle-doves, or of 
young pigeons." 2 

The Bridegroom's compliments are returned 
by the bride : — 

16. Behold, Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, 

pleasant : 
Also our couch is green. 

To her He is not only beautiful in his per- 
son, but also pleasant in His converse with 
her, and she appreciates the generous provi- 
sion He has made for her. Our place of rest, 
it is green, an emblem of freshness and con- 
stancy, and the " our " expresses a union of 
ownership. 

1 John i. 32, 2 Leviticus i. 14. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 29 

Christ and His Church are one. He has 
exalted her to high esteem, and she rejoices 
in His excellency, and can say, " Who is like 
Thee, glorious in holiness ? " 1 

17. The beams of our house are cedars, 
And our rafters are firs." 

The cedars of Lebanon were grand, mighty 
trees, slow of growth, with wide-spreading 
branches, and were firmly rooted and strong, 
and fit for beams and planks, as Solomon 
proved in building the temple ; 2 and we find 
he also took the fir-tree for boards. He used 
these woods because of their strength, hard- 
ness, and lasting properties. It is said that 
the durability of the cedar has been proved 
by a temple of Apollo at Utica, whose beams, 
made of Numidian cedar, had lasted 1,170 
years. These woods were also used, on 
account of their antiseptic qualities, as a 
symbol of purification. 3 What beauty and 
health-giving joy, in the habitation where 
He will dwell with His bride ! 

1 Exodus, xv. 11. 2 1 Kings vi. 9, 10, 15. 3 Numbers xix. 6. 



30 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

The bride may have been sitting with her 
Beloved in the forest of Lebanon, and there 
pictured their house to be like their surround- 
ings, — the trees their roof, and the grass their 
couch. Dr. W. M. Thomson when describ- 
ing the cedars of Lebanon says also^ " One 
is delighted with the verdant floors spread 
around their trunks." 

The whole earth is God's footstool, and 
wherever Christ meets His Church, there is 
His temple. " How amiable are Thy taber- 
nacles, O Lord of Hosts ! " 1 

When Christ was building His gospel tem- 
ple with His disciples, He did not build it 
of the graceful willow, or of the flowering 
shrubs ; but He laid the beams of sturdy, 
durable cedar. He chose His timber from 
among the honest, hardy laborers, whose 
daily toil made them capable of endurance, 
whose habits of industry and frugality made 
them thrifty, and whose dependence gave 
them forecast and trust. He made them 
His chosen companions ; with Him they 

1 Psalms lxxxiv. i. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 31 

breathed the air of the Delectable Mountains, 
and were invigorated with life. The Church 
which He was building was not to spring up 
like Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night 
and perished in a night ; but its growth was to 
be slow, that it might be compact and firm, 
to last forever, and fill the earth with its 
fragrance, 



CHAPTER II. 



E can imagine the bride and her 



* * affianced sitting on the greensward 
under the cedars and firs of Lebanon, and as 
they look down upon the plain of Sharon 
before them, beautiful as Carmel, they see its 
gardens of roses, and in the valleys the lilies 
in bloom, with their purple robes and golden 
centres ; and the Bridegroom, pointing to 
them, says — 

ii. i. I am a rose of Sharon, 



As we carry our thoughts forward of this 
period, to the advent of our Lord, we see 
Christ, while preaching on the Mount, 
attracted by, it is thought, the same kind 
of beautiful lilies in the valley before Him, 
receiving their light and beauty from the 
rays of the sun ; and pointing them out to 




And a lily of the valleys. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 33 

His disciples, He uses them as an illustration 
of His subject, and says, that "even Solomon 
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these." 1 

The rose is esteemed the chief of all 
flowers, and is called " the plant of love ; " it 
is said that the Eastern people, even to the 
present day, are fond of this image. The 
plain of Sharon is a district of the Holy Land 
lying on the east of Jordan. This rose, which 
takes its name from the plain where it grew, 
is the most fragrant of all roses ; large fields 
of them are still cultivated for the extraction 
of the attar. The Bridegroom, therefore, in 
calling Himself a rose of Sharon, declares 
Himself to be the chief of all fragrance. 

The lily of the valley to which He alludes 
is most purely beautiful, and is thought 
by many to be the Iris reticulosa, growing 
among the wild thorns in the valleys ; its 
abundant growth and lowly place represent 
His condescending love, and His fulness and 
sufficiency. 

1 Matthew vi. 29. 
3 



34 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

The lily is an emblem of purity. In an- 
cient Egypt the lotos was considered sacred 
to light. Christ is the Light of the world, 
and the lily is an emblem of Him. Probably 
as a symbol of purity it was the form used in 
much of the ornamental work about the tem- 
ple, and on the dress of the High-priest. 

The Bridegroom, still looking at the lilies 
of the valley in their royal purple dress, and 
noting the contrast to the ugly thorns among 
which they grew, says to His bride, — 

2. As a lily among thorns, 

So is my love among the daughters. 

Like Himself she is clothed in royalty, and 
compared with her the daughters of the 
world are but thorns and briers. Though the 
lily grows among the thorns, overtopped 
and in a measure obscured by them, its 
purity is still preserved intact ; and its beauty 
seems all the greater by its position among 
the hurtful and ugly thorns. 

Christ's Church, though in the world, is 
not of the world ; its thorns and briers may 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 35 

threaten to cover and overshadow her, but 
the light and warmth of Christ's face shining 
upon her will impart to her brightness and 
beauty, and will clothe her in His robe of 
righteousness, by which she will be known 
when He comes to claim her. 

While the betrothed is to her Beloved as 
the lowly flower of the valley in its beauty 
and purity, He is to her as the choicest of 
the trees of the wood, and is not only shad- 
owing, but also fruitful and beautiful. 

3. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, 
So is my Beloved among the sons. 

He is superior in all excellence. By many 
translators the apple-tree to which she refers 
is the citron-tree, which, a writer says, is 
" an umbrageous evergreen of exquisite odor, 
loaded with gold-colored fruit." They are 
such as Solomon mentions in Proverbs, calling 
them " apples of gold." 1 The leaves of the 
tree are of a bright rich green, and its spread- 
ing branches give shelter from the midday 

1 Proverbs xxv. 1 1 . 



36 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 

heat. "The trees of the wood," though noble 
and stately, cannot equal it in beauty and 
refreshing power ; and so among the sons of 
men is her Beloved, pre-eminently the perfec- 
tion of all that is grand and beautiful, as she 
testifies : — 

3. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, 
And His fruit was sweet to my taste. 

There is no end to the blessings which He 
bestows upon His chosen. He delights in 
her because she is like Him; she conforms 
to His tastes ; she takes pleasure in the joys 
He has provided, and is grateful for His love. 
In His companionship she enjoyed the beau- 
ties of nature, the air of the mountain gave 
her life, and His fruit was sweet to her taste, 
He knew all her needs, and before she asked 
He supplied them. She says, — 

4. He brought me to the banqueting house. 

There she might partake still more of His 
bounty. 

This feast to which He brings her is a fore- 
taste of the feast above ; and so " shall the 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 37 

Lord of hosts make unto all peoples a feast 
of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, 
of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the 
lees well refined." 1 

While she is thus refreshed and cheered 
by the gifts of His love, she feels the satis- 
faction of rest and security under His protect- 
ing care, as He is also her standard-bearer, 
as she expresses it, — 

4. And His banner over me was love. 

It was not the banner of some great earthly 
warrior, represented by some wild beast that 
would tear in pieces all who opposed him ; 
but the device of His banner was " Love." 
By this ensign He always conquers. These 
exhibitions of His love have overpowered her 
by such a fulness of joy, that " her soul has 
fainted within her," and she asks for some 
reviving cordial : — 

5. Stay ye me with raisins, comfort me with apples : 
For I am sick of love. 

1 Isaiah xxv. 6. 



38 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

As the Queen of Sheba who was so over- 
come by seeing the glory of Solomon's court 
that " there was no more spirit in her," 1 so 
His affianced prays for strength, that she may 
not sink under the effects of such ecstatic love. 

Feeling her strength returning, she thus 
expresses her assurance of His sustaining 
power : — 

6. His left hand is under my head, 

And His right hand doth embrace me. 

His loving arms support her, and she is 
revived and comforted. 

Christ's left hand is underneath His Church 
to bear her up under her greatest burdens, 
and His right hand round about her to shield 
her from all harm, and to give her confidence 
in Him. 

The affianced, fearing that such sweet 
communion with her Beloved might be in- 
terrupted, and He be led to hasten His 
departure, says : — 

7. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 

By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, — 

1 1 Kings x. 5. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 39 

those pleasant animals, who are timid, and 
soft and gentle in their approach, — I adjure 
you to imitate them, and to be kind and 
loving toward each other, and do not disturb 
our intercourse by bringing in anything that 
is harsh or discordant, ■ — 

7. That ye stir not up nor awake my Love, 
Until He please. 

As the betrothed had not yet reached the 
full fruition of wedded life, and this part of 
the Song represents the courtship, her Be- 
loved has left her for a time, and she is now 
watching for His return. Her ears are open 
to hear His voice ; she listens for His lightest 
footfall. Hark ! it is 

8. The voice of my Beloved ! behold, He cometh, 
Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the 
hills. 

It is not the voice of a stranger that she 
hears ; love is always quick to detect the 
voice of its beloved. 

Thus joyfully and speedily will Christ come 
to His Church when she feels her need of 
Him. 



40 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 

Her Beloved found no difficulties insur- 
mountable to Him, when He would come to 
His betrothed ; even mountains were nothing 
in His way. He comes with the swiftness of 
the gazelle. 

9. My Beloved is like a roe. or a young hart ; 
Behold, He standeth behind our wall, 

He looketh in at the windows, 

He sheweth Himself through the lattice. 

As these gentle animals study the disposi- 
tion of people toward them, and peep from 
behind the walls to see if they may venture 
further, so He is like them, looking in at the 
windows, lover-like, to see if she is watching 
for Him. By His gentle spirit He is wooing 
her to follow Him. She hears His call ; but 
holds back timidly. 

10. My Beloved spake, and said unto me, 

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 

Thus the Church when reviving from her 
lethargy feels her unworthiness to have so 
glorious a Bridegroom, and holds back, droop- 
ing and fearful. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 41 

Her Beloved continues calling in His gen- 
tle manner, cheering her by telling her that 
it is time for rejoicing. 

11. For, lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone ; 

12. The flowers appear on the earth ; 

The time of the singing of birds is come, 

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 

The flowers are filling the air with fra- 
grance and the eye with beauty* TJue-spring^ 
time breaking forth is as the butterfly coming 
out of its chrysalis like a new creation, full 
of brightness and freshness, rejoicing like a 
new-born soul. When the spring arrives, 
and the cold rains are over, and the sun 
breaks through the clouds, the little birds 
come out of their hiding-places, forgetting all 
the cold winter that has passed with its dark- 
ness and privations, and rejoicing in the 
warm sunshine, commence their songs as if 
in praise and thanksgiving to their Creator. 
And should not Christ's Church, when the 
winter of cold with darkness and trials has 
passed, and the spring of Christ's brightness 



42 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 

and sunshine is upon her, forget the things 
that are behind, and come out from her hid- 
ings with songs of thanksgiving and joy ? 
For where would be her gratitude for the 
blessings of the present if she brooded over 
the trials of the past ? 

The turtle-dove, in the East, is one of the 
first harbingers of spring. Says a writer in 
Smith's Dictionary : " While other songsters 
are heard chiefly in the morning, or only at 
intervals during the day, the turtle-dove im- 
mediately on its arrival pours forth from 
every garden, grove, and wooded hill its 
melancholy yet soothing ditty unceasingly 
from early dawn till sunset." 

Her Beloved still joins His voice to the 
voice of Nature, inviting her to partake of its 
offerings : — 

13. The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, 
And the vines are in blossom, 
They give forth their fragrance. 
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 

The spring is advanced, everything is re- 
vived, and the work in the vineyard is waiting. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 43 

As she timidly holds back He encourages her 
to come out of her secret places by commend- 
ing that which is lovely in her: — 

14. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in 

the covert of the steep place, 
Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy 
voice ; 

For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is 
comely. 

She seems to have yielded to His entreat- 
ies, and has gone with Him into the vine- 
yard. While there He sees the necessity of 
guarding it against the ravages of the foxes, 
as the vines are in the condition to tempt 
those marauders. Foxes are said to love 
grapes, and the tender shoots and blossoms 
of the vines are very attractive to them, and 
in seeking for them they tear down the vines 
and trample them under their feet. As a 
careful master of His vineyard, He gives His 
servants charge to secure it against the foxes. 

15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the 

vineyards, 
For our vineyards are in blossom. 

Christ would have His Church beware of 



44 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

those crafty and false teachers who creep 
into the Church that they may destroy the 
good seed that is springing up, and by their 
wily insinuations weaken the faith of the 
young converts, sap the roots of spiritual 
life, and take away the soul's nourishment. 
Thus they destroy the first developments of 
good. These blossoms of Christian graces 
are the most susceptible to injury, and easily 
destroyed when young and tender, and there- 
fore should be more carefully guarded. That 
His Church may be able to rejoice in the 
full growth and perfection of the fruits of 
the vineyard, the buds must be watched and 
cultivated so as to develop into fruit; then 
will she continually increase in strength and 
power. 

Filled with gratitude for the manifestations 
of His tender love, His affianced now re- 
joices in her binding relation to Him who 
is so able and ready to protect her. With 
exultation she says, — 

16. My Beloved is mine, and I am His : 
He feedeth His flock among the lilies. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 45 

She sees His infinite discernment in choos- 
ing the best food for increasing the vigor of 
His flock, while He leads them into these 
luxuriant pastures ; and having tasted of His 
love, she longs for more of His presence. 
She prays Him to turn with the speed of the 
gazelle and bring her where He takes His 
flock, into these pastures, during the early 
morning, that she may take her fill of the 
sweetness of the lilies while the dew is on 
them. 

17. Until the clay break, and the shadows flee away, 
Turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a 

young hart 
Upon the mountains of Bether. 

Daybreak is " day breathe " in the margin, 
and it is very significant. It is said that as 
the day is breaking upon Mount Lebanon, 
most refreshing breezes spring up, which are 
peculiarly grateful during the hot season, as 
the shadows of night flee away. The roe 
and the young hart, those agile and beautiful 
creatures, loved to feed among the lilies 
which grew in the valleys, and along the 



46 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

sides of Mount Lebanon ; there they sought 
pasture until the scorching sun drove them 
up the mountain into the shadow of the 
woods for repose. 

Thus the Church should constantly long 
for Christ's presence to be with her, and to 
breathe on her the Holy Spirit, 1 that she 
may be invigorated with strength for the 
work of life, until the time come when the 
heavens shall open, and reveal the bright- 
ness of the perfect morning. Then the 
shadows of earth shall flee away, and she 
will be called up higher to be ever with 
her Beloved. 

In the following verse the affianced rep- 
resents the Church when in a slumbering 
condition. Her Beloved withdraws, and she 
has grown " weary in well doing ; " but she 
begins to miss His loving companionship, 
and in her night visions she remembers 
the delightful intercourse they have had to- 
gether ; how many tokens of love she has 
received from Him ; and she reflects how 

1 John xx. 22. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 47 

little she has done in return for all those 
blessings. She loved Him, but she had not 
shown her love by her works. " Faith apart 
from works is dead." 1 Repenting of her 
supineness she says: — 

iii. 1. By night on my bed I sought Him whom my 
soul loveth : 
I sought Him, but I found Him not. 

1 James ii. 26. 



CHAPTER III. 



HE feels like David when he cried, " Hide 



^ not Thy face from me," 1 and she deter- 
mines to go in search of her Beloved, saying : 

2. I will rise now, and go about the city, 
In the streets and in the broad ways, 

where are the poor and needy, whom she 
knows her Beloved serves ; and following in 
His footsteps, she continues, — 

2. I will seek Him whom my soul loveth : 
I sought Him, but I found Him not 

She follows on, " faint yet pursuing." 

3. The watchmen that go about the city found me : 
To whom I said, Saw ye Him whom my soul 
loveth ? 

Having shown her zeal and sincerity in 
seeking her Beloved, and thus proving her 
love, when she cried to Him He was found 




1 Psalms cxliii. 7. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 49 

of her. What joy this finding of the Beloved 
brings ! 

4. It was but a little that I passed from them, 
When I found Him whom my soul loveth : 
I held Him, and would not let Him go, 
Until I had brought him into my mother's house, 
And into the chamber of her that conceived me. 

There it was He had first wooed her, 
where He had called her after His own 
name, " as a lily among thorns/' and where 
she had feasted with Him in the banqueting- 
house, and where when sick and fainting He 
had sustained and comforted her. 

When the Church grows slack in duty, 
Christ takes His own way of bringing her 
back. He loves her, and draws her to run 
after Him, and when she invites Him to her 
home, He comes, and brings the joy of sal- 
vation with Him. He says, " For a small 
moment have I forsaken thee ; but with 
great mercies will I gather thee." 1 

In this joy of first love restored, the affi- 
anced, with increased watchfulness lest any- 

1 Isaiah liv. 7. 
4 



50 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

thing disturb their harmony, renews her 
charge to the daughters : — 

5. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, 
That ye stir not up, nor awake my Love, 
Until He please. 

The desire of her heart is, that He would 
abide with her. 

The Bridegroom has proved, in various 
ways and at different times, the love of His 
bride elect ; He has found her faithful and 
true, and now He will claim her before the 
world, and by a public acknowledgment unite 
her to Himself by indissoluble ties. He 
has therefore gone to prepare for the nup- 
tials, then to return and take her to His 
home, and the bride expectant watches for 
His approach. 

The taking home of the bride was the 
principal part of the marriage ceremony, and 
the imagery here used is illustrative of the 
Oriental customs of the Jews. 

A wedding was an occasion of great re- 
joicing among the friends and neighbors of 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 5 I 

the bride and bridegroom, each one con- 
tributing something to the joys of the 
festival. 

In the absence of her Bridegroom, the 
bride recalls the time of her betrothal when 
she rejoiced in the beauty of her Lord, and 
when her companions rejoiced with her. 
These sweet memories rise like incense 
before her, and while she is watching for 
His return, she sees Him in the distance 
approaching, and overjoyed cries out: — 

6. Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness 
like pillars of smoke, 
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, 
With all the powders of the merchant? 

It was customary for the bridegroom, 
when he came after his bride, to be thus 
redolent with perfumes. 

That which she calls the " wilderness " 
may represent the darkness of midnight, 
when the Eastern marriages took place. 
" But at midnight there is a cry, Behold 
the Bridegroom ! Come ye forth to meet 
Him." 1 

1 Matthew xxv. 6. 



52 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

This call was made to the friends of the 

bride and bridegroom, who were watching to 
catch the procession., and join it in passing. 

As we gather from various writers on 
those Eastern customs, the bridegroom o-oes 
forth to meet his bride ; the virgins, com- 
panions of the bride, accompany her from 
her father's house ; other virgins lead the 
procession, carrying silver pots of perfumes, 
and these are so liberally burned as to 
form columns of smoke rising like palm- 
trees in shape. Sometimes aromatics are 
burned in the windows of all the houses in 
the streets through which the procession is 
passing. 

The maidens cheer the bride in leaving her 
father's house by describing to her the beauty 
of the home to which she is going, and the 
joys which await her there. In like manner 
the timid soul in leaving its earthly home for 
the untried realities of another world, finds 
encouragement and cheer in the Promises ; 
as it is written, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 53 

man, the things which God hath prepared for 

them that love Him." 1 

The maidens direct the bride's attention 

to the rich furnishing of the Bridegroom's 

escort : — 

7. Behold, it is the litter of Solomon ; 
Threescore mighty men are about it, 
Of the mighty men of Israel. 

These probably represent the companions 
of the Bridegroom, "the sons of the bride- 
chamber." 2 

Solomon in his kingly magnificence is here 
an illustrious type of a greater than Solomon, 
— of Christ, who is the Husband of His 
Church. 

When He comes to take home His bride, 
He will come in His glory, with thousands of 
His saints, and His bride, who is waiting and 
watching for Him, will be well guarded, as 
Elisha was, w T hen he prayed the Lord to open 
the eyes of his servant : " And the Lord 
opened the eyes of the young man ; and he 
saw, and, behold, the mountain was full of 

1 1 Corinthians ii. 9. - Matthew ix. 15. 



54 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOA r GS. 

horses and chariots of fire round about 
Elisha." 1 

Christ's army is disciplined, valiant, and 
watchful, and, like the Bridegroom's escort, 

8. They all handle the sword and are expert in war: 
Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, 
Because of fear in the night. 

The evil one is always stalking abroad, seek- 
ing whom he mav devour; under the cover of 
darkness he tries to hide his malignant deeds. 
The Church of Christ is his particular object 
of enmity ; but while she watches and trusts, 
she need not fear, for with Christ is safety. 

The car of state which was approaching 
with the Bridegroom to receive the bride, and 
to convey her to His palace, is more particu- 
larly described under the form of King Solo- 
mon's chariot : — 

9. King Solomon made himself a palanquin 
Of the wood of Lebanon. 

10. He made the pillars thereof of silver, 

The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of 
purple, 

1 2 Kings vi. 17. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 55 



The midst thereof being paved with love, 
From the daughters of Jerusalem. 

The ornamental work of Solomon's day was 
very rich in silver and gold, and in embroidery. 
Solomon's temple was supported by pillars of 
cedar, the wood of Lebanon, and overlaid with 
gold, as also were the beams, and the walls, 
and the doors, and the floor of the inner 
house. Also all the vessels that were for the 
house of God w T ere made of gold ; and the 
flowers, and the lamps, and the utensils around 
the altar were of pure gold, for so God had 
commanded Moses. 1 

" Silver was nothing counted of in the days 
of Solomon." 2 

" And the king made silver and gold to be 
in Jerusalem as stones. ,, 3 

The hangings of the temple were of blue 
and purple and crimson, and wrought with 
needlework by the women of Judea, who were 
famous in those days for their curious works 
in that line, — " And all the women that were 

1 Exodus xxv. 2 Chronicles ix. 20. 

3 Ibid. i. 15. 



56 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 

wise hearted did spin with their hands," 1 — as 
were also the women of Sisera's day : — 

To Sisera a spoil of divers colors, 

A spoil of clivers colors of embroidery, 

Of divers colors of embroidery on both sides. 2 

She maketh for herself carpets of tapestry : 
Her clothing is fine linen and purple. 3 

It was a custom of the women of the East 
to embroider — sometimes with gold wire — 
a covering, or mat, with love-mottoes, or with 
something interesting and appropriate to the 
occasion of the marriage, and to present it as 
a wedding-present to the bridegroom. In this 
instance the mat was inwrought with love- 
mottoes by the daughters of Jerusalem. The 
Bridegroom after graciously receiving it, and 
placing it in the midst of His car, thus paved 
the golden floor of His chariot with love for 
His bride. 

It was a royal chariot, and even under His 
feet were the emblems of love. " God is love." 
These adornings by the women, whether at 

1 Exodus xxxv. 25. 2 Judges v. 30. 

3 Proverbs xxxi. 22. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 57 

work in the courts of God's house embroider- 
ing the curtains, or in their gifts of love for 
the chariot of the Bridegroom, show how the 
daughters of Zion in our day can help on the 
chariot of the Prince of Peace, by cheering 
the way with songs of praise and joy, and 
by works and gifts of love, and thus " adorn 
the doctrine of God our Saviour. 1 ' 1 

The bride is adorned as David describes 
her : — 

The King's daughter within the palace is all 
glorious : 

Her clothing is inwrought with gold. 

She shall be led unto the King in broidered work. 

The virgins her companions that follow her 

Shall be brought unto Thee. 

With gladness and rejoicing shall they be led. 

They shall enter into the King's palace. 2 

When the bride is received by the Bride- 
groom, and seated by His side in His car of 
state, they enter Zion, the seat of the royal 
kingdom. 

For the Lord hath chosen Zion ; 

He hath desired it for His habitation. 

1 Titus ii. 9. 2 Psalms xlv. 13-15. 



58 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

This is my resting-place forever : 

Here will I dwell ; for I have desired it." 1 

Bands of musicians always went in ad- 
vance of the wedding procession, and singers 
cheered the way with songs in praise of the 
bride and bridegroom. When Israel rebelled 
against God, and as a consequence He for- 
sook them, among other evils that came upon 
them it is said, " And their maidens had no 
marriage-song/' 2 At this wedding there is 
nothing lacking. The daughters of Zion are 
called upon to come and witness the glorious 
spectacle, and behold the Bridegroom whom 
Solomon represents : — 

ii. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold 
King Solomon, 
With the crown wherewith His mother hath 

crowned Him in the day of His espousals, 
And in the day of the gladness of His heart. 

It was the crown of a King, and as such, 
no doubt, was made of gold and sparkling 
with jewels, — well worth coming out to see. 

When Christ comes to receive His Bride, 

1 Psalms cxxxii. 13, 14. 2 Psalms Ixxviii. 63. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS 59 

He will come as King, acknowledged by all 
peoples, and crowned by His Church as Lord 
of all. 

With loving heart the Bridegroom turns to 
His bride, and points out the graces which 
adorn her, and which before had captivated 
Him: — 

iv. 1. Behold, thou art fair, my love ; behold, thou art 
fair ; 

Thine eyes are as doves behind thy veil. 



CHAPTER IV. 



T T E first speaks of her gentle, loving eyes, 
* which are looking only to Him for 
guidance : — 

As the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her 
mistress ; 

So our eyes look unto the Lord our God. 1 

In looking to Him she finds a pattern of 
excelling beauty. The more the Church 
whom the bride represents looks to the 
Bridegroom, the more she reflects His image. 
" But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as 
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to 
glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." 2 

He next notes her veil of flowing hair 
which shades those gentle eyes, — 

1 Psalms cxxiii. 2. 2 2 Corinthians iii. 18. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 6 1 

I. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, 

That lie along the side of Mount Gilead. 

His comparison of her hair to a flock of 
goats on the side of Mount Gilead is sup- 
posed to refer to the hair of the beautiful An- 
gora goat, which has long pendent ears, and 
soft glossy hair falling over its sides and 
reaching almost to the ground. The bride's 
long silken hair, in profusion covering her 
person as a veil, would seem to denote her 
modesty. Saint Paul says, " But if a woman 
have long hair, it is glory to her : for her hair 
is given her for a covering." 1 

The Bridegroom admires her outward beau- 
ty, because it symbolizes her grace within. 
It is not the grandeur of architectural dis- 
play and ornament in His Church that Christ 
most commends ; for He told His disciples, 
" These must all pass away," 2 while the 
spiritual excellences of His Church are inde- 
structible. 

The Bridegroom next praises His bride's 
teeth : — 

1 i Corinthians xi. 15. 2 Luke xxi. 5, 6. 



62 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

2. Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly 
shorn, 

Which are come up from the washing ; 
Whereof every one hath twins, 
And none is bereaved among them. 

He represents her teeth as uniform and 
perfect in shape, with none lacking, thus 
indicating youth and a good constitution. 
They are also like the ewes newly washed, 
showing cleanliness and purity. They are in 
good order as instruments adapted to prepare 
the food for digestion, that it may nourish 
the body. 

Thus the ordinances of Christ's Church 
must be pure and uniform in their adminis- 
tration, that the provision of His house, the 
Bread of Life, which He has given may be 
duly received, and inwardly digested for the 
soul's nourishment. 

3. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, 
And thy mouth is comely. 

It is her speech, which is " with grace sea- 
soned with salt," 1 that makes her mouth so 

1 Colossians iv. 6. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 63 

comely. Her words, coming from a heart 
overflowing with love and wisdom, give ex- 
pression to her mouth. " Grace is poured 
into thy lips." 1 It is said, " For the grace 
of his lips the king shall be his friend," 2 and 
so it proved with her. 

3. Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate 
Behind thy veil. 

His praises bring the blushes to her 
cheeks, rising to the temples. They are like 
the delicate pink inside the pomegranate, 
and seen through her veil of flowing hair 
they indicate her sensitive delicacy of soul. 

Her neck, erect and firm, representing her 
conscious dignity, He compares in strength 
and beauty to David's tower : — 

4. Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an 

armory, 

Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, 
All the shields of the mighty men. 

This tower to which He alludes was 
erected by David in Jerusalem, and was 

1 Psalms xlv. 2. 2 Proverbs xxii. ix. 



64 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

probably built of the same kind of pure white 
marble used in the temple. The shields were 
those captured by David's valiant soldiers 
when David went to fight Hadarezer, and 
" took the shields of gold that were on the 
servants of Hadarezer and brought them to 
Jerusalem/' 1 They were probably hung on 
the tower where all could see them, as me- 
mentos of the prowess of his soldiers. We 
read of such a custom in the description of 
Tyre's beauty. 

" They hanged their shields upon thy 
walls round about; they have perfected thy 
beauty/' 2 " Shields of state were covered 
with beaten gold." 3 Solomon made three 
hundred shields of beaten gold, and we find 
that some of the Egyptian necklaces were 
made of shield-shaped pieces of gold linked 
together. Such a chain upon the neck of 
His bride makes the allusion very beautiful. 

In the New Testament the shield is made 
a symbol of faith. Paul tells the Church to 

1 i Chronicles xviii. 7. 2 Ezekiel xxvii. 11. 

3 2 Chronicles ix. 16. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 65 

take the " shield of faith." 1 In the eleventh 
chapter of Hebrews we read of many wor- 
thies who used this shield, and were strong 
and mighty victors. These trophies of faith 
are held up to view, as were the shields of 
David's mighty men, that we might know 
their value and take the shield of faith for 
our protection. In the dress of Oriental 
women the neck is exposed very low, so that 
the breasts are partly visible ; as these come 
under the Bridegroom's observation He says, 

5. Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins 
of a roe, 
Which feed among the lilies. 

Thus He is satisfied with the comeliness of 
His bride, and rejoices in the completeness 
of her charms, and He will take her with 
Him to Lebanon, that her beauty may be 
preserved by the health-giving odors of the 
mountain, when the fragrance exhaled by 
the morning dew is the richest, and when the 
breezes are the most refreshing. Therefore 
He says, 

1 Ephesians vi. 16. 
5 



66 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 



6. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, 
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, 
And to the hill of frankincense. 

Myrrh and frankincense were among the 
chief balsams that were burnt upon the altar 
at the morning and evening sacrifice. The 
incense arising from them represents the 
prayers and praises of Christ's Church which 
are offered upon the mountains of spiritual 
joy. Christ loves to receive them in their 
freshness, and in their exaltation ; and when 
this incense ascends to Him the shadows of 
sin and the darkness of doubt and trial 
scatter as the mists before the rising sun. 

The beauty of the bride comes with such 
fulness to the Bridegroom that He exclaims, 

7. Thou art all fair, my love, 
And there is no spot in thee. 

The praising of the bride was customary 
at Oriental marriage festivals. The guests 
were always delighted with the bridegroom's 
expressions of love for her, and the friend of 
the bridegroom rejoiced in witnessing his 
satisfaction, — as John said to his disciples : 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 67 

" The friend of the Bridegroom, which stand- 
eth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly be- 
cause of the Bridegroom's voice ; this my 
joy therefore is fulfilled." 1 

The bride must be fair indeed when He 
passes such an encomium upon her. Such 
will be the Church of Christ when perfected ; 
there will be no spot in her. " That He might 
present the Church to Himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing ; but that it should be holy and 
without blemish." 2 

The marriage union between the Bride- 
groom and His bride being now consum- 
mated, the Bridegroom for the first time calls 
her His bride : — 

8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, 
With me from Lebanon : 
Look from the top of Amana, 
From the top of Senir and Hermon, — 

that is, the highest peaks of the Syrian 
range. He shows her from all sides the 
beautiful land. As God showed Moses, from 

1 John hi. 29. 2 Ephesians v. 27. 



68 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



the top of Pisgah, the Canaan He had pre- 
pared for Israel, so Christ takes His Church 
up to " the munitions of rocks," where she 
" shall see the King in His beauty, " and 
" behold a far stretching land." 1 

It was the Delectable Mountains that 
Bunyan's Pilgrim, Christian, saw in the dis- 
tance, " beautified with woods and vineyards, 
fruits and flowers, with springs and foun- 
tains ; called Immanuel's land," and which 
can only be seen when on the mount with 
Christ. 

The Bridegroom also takes His bride to 
look- 
's. From the lions' dens, 

From the mountains of the leopards. 

There are no lions or leopards there now ; 
they are driven away, or placed where they 
are powerless to harm her. 

When the Church is on the mount with 
Christ she can look without fear into the 
dens of the wild beasts that sought to destroy 
her; for she sees that Christ has rescued her 

1 Isaiah xxxiii. 16, 17. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 69 

from great and strong enemies that were 
within her heart and enemies outside in the 
world, prowling about like roaring lions seek- 
ing to tear and to devour her. Her faith and 
trust in her deliverer is strengthened ; her 
heart glows with love and gratitude ; she 
knows that as He has saved her from dan- 
gers in the past, so He will continue His pro- 
tecting care until He has brought her into 
the full fruition of perfect love and peace. 

Words are inadequate to express the won- 
derful depth of Christ's love for His bride the 
Church. He has raised her up " to sit with 
Him in the heavenly places," that she may 
grow in strength like the cedars of Lebanon, 
and " that in the ages to come He might 
shew the exceeding riches of His grace." 1 

When Christ has perfected His workman- 
ship in His Church He will tell her, as the 
Bridegroom told His bride, — 
9. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride ; 
calling her not only His bride, but His sister- 
bride, — Himself her Brother; and as if to 

1 Ephesians ii. 6, 7. 



70 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

make their union stronger, He cements it by 
a blood relationship between them, as chil- 
dren of one Father. For this reason it was 
that Christ took upon Him a human nature, 
calling Himself not only the Bridegroom of 
His Church, but also her elder Brother. 
The Bridegroom repeats to His bride, — 

9. Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes; 

that one look revealed to Him her trusting 
heart ; and He met it with His fervent love. 

Christ waits with open arms to embrace 
His Church. The first glance toward Him, 
the first sincere desire for Him, He hastens 
to meet. 

His Church is His peculiar treasure, as He 
told Moses to tell His people, " If ye will 
obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, 
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me 
from among all peoples." 1 

Also the adorning of His bride has rav- 
ished His heart, He says, — 

9. With one chain of thy neck. 

1 Exodus xix. 5, 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 71 

David says, 

He will beautify the meek with salvation. 1 

Solomon in his Proverbs uses these adorn- 
ings to illustrate a meek and obedient spirit : 

For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, 
And chains about thy neck. 2 

The love of the bride is a joy to the Bride- 
groom. He expresses it, — 

10. Kow fair is thy love, my sister, my bride ! 

And to the Church, Christ says, "As the 
Bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall 
thy God rejoice over thee." 3 

The love of the bride is not only beautiful 
to the Bridegroom, but is most refreshing to 
His spirit, as He says, — 

10. How much better is thy love than wine ! 

And the smell of thine ointments than all manner 
of spices ! 

Part of the bride's preparation for the mar- 
riage was her bath on the day previous, and 

1 Psalms cxlix. 4. 2 Proverbs i. 9. 3 Isaiah lxii. 5. 



72 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

her anointing with perfumed ointments. The 
perception by the Bridegroom of the odor of 
these delightful unguents, added to the rich- 
ness and purity of her adornments, testified 
to Him that " His bride had made herself 
ready." 1 

He had before praised her hair, flowing, as 
virgins wore it when attired for marriage. 
He had noticed her veil, the distinctive 
feature of her bridal dress, and the chains 
of gold and jewels, which no bride could 
forget. 2 This complete readiness of the 
bride proved to Him the sincerity of her love, 
and was more cheering to Him than wine, 
and more refreshing " than all manner of 
spices/' 

The anointing of the bride may figure the 
gifts and graces of the Spirit poured upon 
the Church ; and when she gives out their 
fragrance, it is esteemed by Christ as better 
than all oblations. 

He is more pleased with the love of His 
Church, than He would be with all the treas- 

1 Revelation xix. 7. 2 Jeremiah ii. 32. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 73 

ures that could be offered to Him if love 
were wanting ; but when the gift is prompted 
by love it is " an odor of a sweet smell, a 
sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God." 1 

In the Apocalypse John says of the bride, 
" And it was given unto her that she should 
array herself in fine linen, bright and pure ; 
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the 
saints." 2 

In the third verse the Bridegroom praised 

the beauty of the bride's lips and mouth, and 

now He gives the reason of their comeliness, — 

n. Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb : 
Honey and milk are under thy tongue. 

In Syria children were fed with honey 
and milk or cream. The mixture of honey and 
cream was considered a great delicacy, and 
was commended for its healthfulness. 

It was prophesied of Christ, " Butter and 
honey shall He eat that He may know to refuse 
the evil and choose the good." 3 Honey was 
used as an image of pleasure and happiness. 

From the mouth of the bride flow the words 

1 Philippians iv. 18. 2 Revelation xix. 8. 3 Isaiah vii. 15. 



74 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

of heavenly wisdom and knowledge, which she 
had " laid up in her heart/' 1 and as David 
described those precepts of wisdom, " they 
were sweeter also than honey and the honey- 
comb." 2 They overflowed like the droppings 
of the full honeycomb. For " of the abun- 
dance of the heart his mouth speaketh," 3 and 
" my tongue also shall talk of Thy righteous- 
ness all the day long." 4 

When the Church comes fully to know 
" Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wis- 
dom and knowledge hidden," 5 then will her 
words exceed in sweetness the droppings of 
the honeycomb. " Then they that feared the 
Lord spake one with another : and the Lord 
hearkened and heard, and a book of remem- 
brance was written before Him, for them that 
feared the Lord, and that thought upon His 
name." 6 

The bride's wedding garment in those days 
was always white, a symbol of purity. When 
the bride anointed herself, after her bath, 



1 Psalms cxix. II. 2 Ibid. xix. io. 8 Luke vi. 45. 

* Psalms lxxi. 24. 5 Colossians ii. 3. 6 Malachi iii. 16. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 75 

she also highly perfumed her bridal dress. 
Her Bridegroom notes with pleasure the rich- 
ness of its fragrance, and says, — 

11. And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of 
Lebanon. 

To the Church, the wedding garment is the 
robe of righteousness with which Christ has 
clothed her. Her faith and works are the 
fragrance which comes up before Him " as 
the smell of Lebanon." 1 

Rev. I. L. Porter says, "The fresh moun- 
tain breezes on Lebanon are filled in early 
summer with the fragrance of the budding 
vine, and throughout the year with the rich 
odors of numerous aromatic shrubs." 2 

Rev. Samuel Wolcott, D. D., writes, "The 
cedar cones exude a balsam which is very 
fragrant. The writer plucked several in the 
celebrated groves on Mt Lebanon, and hung 
them in his apartment. For weeks after 
every one who entered his room noticed the 
delicate perfume which filled it." 

The Bridegroom, having called His bride by 

1 Isaiah hri. 10. 2 In Smith's Dictionary. 



76 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

the name of every endearing charm of person, 
now likens her spiritual graces to a garden 
full of beautiful plants and trees that have 
been highly cultivated, — 

12. A garden shut up is my sister, my bride ; 
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 

It is a garden which He esteems so valuable 
that He has fenced it in, as a protection from 
" the wild beasts of the field." 

It is set apart from the outside world, and 
His protection is about it as a hedge of de- 
fence. It has a well-spring of life within it- 
self, sealed to all but those who know the gift 
of God that they may drink and never thirst. 

In Isaiah this garden is called " a vineyard 
fenced," and its products are called by Paul 
" the fruit of the Spirit." The Bridegroom 
rejoices in its products : — 

13. Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with 

precious fruits ; 
Henna with spikenard plants, 

14. Spikenard and saffron, 

Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frank- 
incense ; 

Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, — 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 77 

spices the choicest of their kind, such as 
were used in the service of the tabernacle, and 
for compounding the anointing oil. 

In Christ's garden there is everything to 
make it beautiful for the eye, delicious for the 
taste, and fragrant for the smell. It is truly 
a paradise to all who will enter and partake of 
its precious fruits. And more than this, the 
Bridegroom says, — 

15. Thou art a fountain of gardens. 

Maundrell, in his " Early Travels in the 
East," when speaking of his visit to the palace 
garden of the Emir of Berytry, says, "The gar- 
den of the Emir's palace contains a large quad- 
rangular plot of ground, divided into sixteen 
lesser squares, four in a row, with walks be- 
tween them. Every one of these lesser squares 
was bordered with stone, and in the stone work 
were troughs, artificially contrived for convey- 
ing the water all over the garden, there being 
little outlets at every square, for the stream, 
as it passed by, to flow out and water them." 

This was one form of irrigation in the East. 



78 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

The one large garden by this arrangement 
became a plurality of gardens, which were 
all watered from the same fountain. 

No garden there could afford to be without 
a reservoir of water of sufficient quantity for 
distribution through the various conduits, as 
a provision for the dry season of the year. 

The Bridegroom compliments His bride as 
being the means of all this beauty and fruit- 
fulness, as the "fountain of the gardens." 
His praise has great force when we consider 
the value of water in those Eastern lands. 

Christ is the fountain-head of His garden. 
" Its watercourses are in His hand ; He turn- 
eth them whithersoever He will." 1 His 
Church must make use of the means which 
He has abundantly provided for the nourish- 
ment of His garden, that it may produce 
"trees of righteousness, the planting of the 
Lord, that He might be glorified. " 2 

He also calls His bride — 

15. A well of living waters, 

And flowing streams from Lebanon ; 

1 Proverbs xxi. 1. 2 Isaiah lxi. 3. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 79 

as Christ said to the Samaritan woman : 
"The water that I shall give him shall be- 
come in him a well of water springing up 
unto eternal life." 1 

This living water Chrysostom calls " the 
grace of the Holy Spirit. For as the water 
which descends from heaven nourishes and 
vivifies, and though it may be of one kind 
operates in various ways, — is snow-white in 
the lily, but yellow in the narcissus, blushes 
in the rose, is purple in the violet, is sweet 
in the fig, but bitter in the wormwood, — so 
also the Divine Spirit which descends from 
heaven nourishes and vivifies the soul, and 
though of one kind exerts its power and 
efficacy in various ways." 

" There is a river the streams whereof 
make glad the city of God." 2 

If the heart of the Church is open to re- 
ceive this gift of the Holy Spirit, the stream 
will fill it to overflowing. 

In answer to ail the Bridegroom's commen- 
dations of the bride, she invites Him into 

1 John iv. 14, 2 Psalms xlvi. 4. 



80 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

the garden to eat of its fruits, and to enjoy 
its delightful odors. 

She calls upon the winds to increase its 
fragrance : — 

1 6. Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; 
Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof 
may flow out. 

She calls upon the south wind, which is 
moist, to soften and open the pores of the 
spicy plants, and upon the north w r ind to 
blow on them, and waft their fragrance on 
the breeze. These plants have been wa- 
tered from the well of living water. 

The gifts and graces of the Church are 
watered by the Holy Spirit ; without that 
living water they would wither and die. As 
in Christ they are " made alive," therefore to 
Him belong all the fruits. 1 These graces 
must not be covered up, hid in a napkin, or 
stifled under a bushel, but they must flow 
out to His glory. 

As these spices are wafted on the breeze, 
to the joy of all w T ho breathe them, so the 

1 John xv. 5. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 8 1 



good works of the Church must be extended 
far and wide, that others seeing them " may 
glorify their Father who is in heaven." 1 
The bride's petition is, — 

1 6. Let my Beloved come into His garden, 
And eat His precious fruits. 

She would have Him come and grace the 
feast by His presence, and thus her faith and 
hope would be quickened, her love increased, 
and her courage and zeal strengthened. 

He has accepted her invitation before she 
has given it. 

1 Matthew v. 16. 



CHAPTER V. 



v. i. I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride. 
(~** HRIST stands ready to visit His Church, 



v - > ' and only waits for her to be willing to 
receive Him. 

The garden is His. "My garden," He 
says ; He acknowledges the joint ownership, 
and partakes with her of its rich fruits, and 
adds, — 

I. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. 

She had asked the winds to come and blow 
upon her garden, that it might give out its 
fragrance, and her Beloved has rejoiced in its 
odors. 

Her love proffered the gift, and her heart 
offered the best of all the products of the gar- 
den to her Beloved. She withheld nothing. 




ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 83 

As she herself belonged to Him, so she 
gave Him all she had. 

He had previously praised her when He 
called her " a fountain of gardens/' and He 
has now commended her work by accepting 
the products of the garden, and has gathered 
them as sweet incense offered to Himself. 

He has also enlarged the feast by His rich 
gifts, — 

1. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. 

It is not pressed honey He has brought, 
strained out from the comb, but that which 
is the sweetest and is fresh with the comb. 

Thus it is that the greater is the Church's 
love to Christ the fuller and the more abun- 
dant will be her offerings. She will give 
Him all she has, whether it is much or little, 
and if only a cup of cold water is given in 
His name, He will receive it as a peace offer- 
ing laid upon the altar of thanksgiving. 
" For with such sacrifices God is well 
pleased." 1 It is " an odor of a sweet smell, 
a sacrifice acceptable, w r ellpleasing to God." 2 

1 Hebrews xiii. 16. 2 Philippians iv. 18. 



84 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

Such gifts are the adornments of the 
Church's life, and are sparkling gems, which 
the world might envy. 

In return for this love Christ will commune 
with His Church at His table, and will enrich 
the feast by His generous gifts of wine and 
milk. As the Bridegroom told His bride, — 

I. I have drunk my wine with my milk. 
Eat, O friends ; 
Drink, yea, drink abundantly, 
O beloved. 

This garden feast is an emblem of the 
feast of which Christ partakes with His be- 
loved around, the sacramental board. 

He extends His invitation to every one 

that will come to the feast. " Ho, every one 

that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and 

he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and 

eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without 

money and without price." 1 David says, — 

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of 
Thy house ; 

And Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy 
pleasures. 2 

1 Isaiah lv. i. 2 Psalms xxxvi. 8. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 85 

After the bride has partaken of this feast 
with the Bridegroom, and has been refreshed 
by His presence with her in the garden, 
we could hardly believe it possible for her 
to become slothful, or weary in well-doing ; 
but it seems that she has ; though she 
dislikes to own it, and excuses herself by 
saying, — 

2. I was asleep, but my heart waked : 

It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh. 

He was knocking at her heart ; He found 
that all right, or He would not have called her 
such endearing names as when He says, — 

2. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my 
undented. 

But though He calls her by these tender 
names, that of bride is not among them, — 
though she is still His bride, — for she is not 
in unison with Him when He is toiling and 
she is sleeping. 

He has been out in the darkness, where the 
shadows of night fall, and exposed to its chill 
damps, as He says, — 



I 



86 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



2. For my head is filled with dew, 

My locks with the drops of the night. 

She might at least have been watching for 
the Bridegroom's voice, when He had shown 
such love for her. Now He entreats, — 

3. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on ? 

I have washed my feet ; how shall I defile them ? — 

as He will if He goes away over the dirt. 
He is ready for entrance, His sandals re- 
moved, as was the custom when entering a 
house. She hears the call, but her lethargy 
still overpowers her, and she does not arouse 
until she sees His hand. 

4. My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the 

door, 

And my heart was moved for Him. 

His hand is upon the bolt, that hand of 
blessing; but He cannot open without her 
aid. The pin that holds the bolt must be 
withdrawn from the inside. 

Her Bridegroom is waiting to be gracious, 
and will enter when the door is open to re- 
ceive Him. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 87 

Christ's Church should not be slothful, but 
should be always ready, " with loins girded 
about, and lamps burning, and like unto men 
looking for their Lord, when He shall return 
from the marriage feast, that when He 
cometh and knocketh, they may straight- 
way open unto Him." 1 

The bride, now thoroughly aroused, says, 

5. I rose up to open to my Beloved. 

She takes hold of the lock and finds the 
traces of His touch in the healing balsams, 
and in the sweet-smelling spices upon the 
handles ; and in such abundance were they 
she says, — 

5. And my hands dropped with myrrh, 
And my fingers with liquid myrrh, 
Upon the handles of the bolt. 

Christ's loving, generous hands drop healing 
balsam wherever they touch. The sin-stricken 
ones feel the power of His forgiving love 
coursing through their veins, and giving them 
new life and vigor. The wanderer breathes 

1 Luke xii. 36. 

■ 



88 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

the odor of the Balm of Gilead and is drawn 
to follow after Him. Even poor doubting 
Thomas, when he saw those hands the nails 
had cleft, from which the Balm of Gilead 
poured forth, could not but exclaim, " My 
Lord and my God ! " 

The bride, humbled and grieved at the 
thought of her indolence, and melted by the 
sight of* these rich tokens of His love which 
He has left behind Him, says, — 

6. I opened to my Beloved ; 

But my Beloved had withdrawn 
Himself, and was gone. 

She is "too late." He had left in sorrow. 
She hears His retreating step, and His far-off 
voice, and says, — 

6. My soul had failed me when He spake : 
I sought Him, but I could not find Him ; 
I called Him, but He gave me no answer. 

He knew when her heart had failed her, 
and He gave her strength to arouse from her 
sleep, but He hid Himself that He might 
prove her. If He had left her to herself, 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 89 

she would have turned upon her bed and 
said, — 

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, 

A little folding of the hands to sleep. 1 

She might have received Him with comfort 
and joy if she had been watchful and ready; 
but now she is rebuked for her short-coming, 
and has to go out into the chill night air to 
seek Him. When the Church does not fol- 
low Christ, she has to bear her burden of 
darkness and exposure alone. 

How pitiful the bride's plaint : — 

7. The watchmen that go about the city found me, 
They smote me, they wounded me ; 
The keepers of the walls took away my mantle 
from me. 

The watchmen on the walls of Zion, God's 
ministers, are sometimes lacking in charity 
toward the wanderer. Her Bridegroom is not 
at her side to defend her, and alone, and out 
in the night with darkness around her, she is 
taken for a vain woman, and is exposed to 
contempt. She needs the light of His counte- 

1 Proverbs xxiv. 33. 



go ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

nance to shine upon her, that His image may 
be reflected from her face, and thus reveal to 
others the knowledge that she is His. 

When Christ's Church becomes cold and 
lax in duty, Christ will hide His face from 
her, darkness will gather around her, and her 
only hope is in seeking again the " Sun of 
Righteousness, " the Fountain of light and 
warmth, and then, whether in prosperity or 
in adversity, when found, " He will be to 
her an everlasting light, and Christ will be 
her glory." 1 

The absence of the Bridegroom caused the 
bride to feel her own weakness, and deepened 
her repentance. In her grief she is almost 
beside herself ; she begs her friends, her com- 
panions, the virgins, to help her in her search 
for Him, and to intercede for her : — 

8. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find 
my Beloved, 
That ye tell Him, that I am sick of love. 

When the bride was overpowered with love, 
and fainting, then her Beloved upheld her 

1 Isaiah lx. 19. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 9 1 

(ii. 6), and she knows that if she can again 
find Him, His arms will be around her, for 
her support and comfort. In reply to her 
petition these daughters ask, — 

9. What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, 
O thou fairest among women ? 

Wherein does He excel any other ? They 
try to comfort her by praising her beauty, as 
though it were strange that He could leave 
one so full of charms. Perhaps her earnest 
desire after the Bridegroom has heightened 
her beauty, and caused them to wonder at 
her distress. They think that He must be 
transcendent in beauty and worth, if He is 
superior to her. 

There are many worldlings who endeavor to 
make the seekers after God to rest satisfied 
with themselves, and to believe that they will 
be saved, as they have always been upright 
and amiable, and that because God is merciful 
they need not seek after Him. 

But the bride does not feel that satisfaction 
with herself ; she knows how little she de- 
serves the praises of the daughters, and in her 



92 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

humility she cannot answer them ; therefore 
they repeat the question, — - 

9. What is thy Beloved more than another beloved 
That thou dost so adjure us ? 

In the fulness of her love, she replies by 
describing Him as the perfection of beauty 
and grace in person and character. As David 
expressed it, " Thou art fairer than the chil- 
dren of men." 1 

10. My Beloved is white and ruddy, 
The chiefest among ten thousand. 

He is full of health and vigor. He is the 
standard-bearer. Other kings and priests 
and prophets may be great in excellence, but 
none can equal Him. He is the banner chief. 
Alluding to His kingly crown, she says, — 
11. His head is as the most fine gold. 

As in the day of her espousals she had 
called on the daughters of Zion to behold her 
King with His bridal crown, so now by His 
crown He may be recognized. 

Describing His person more particularly, 
she begins with His head, — 

1 Psalms xlv. 2. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 93 

11. His locks are bushy, andbla.dk as a raven, — 

thus showing the strength of manhood ; no 
baldness, no gray hair, no sign of the weak- 
ness of age upon Him. 

12. His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks ; 
Washed with milk and fitly set, — 

like the eyes of young doves, clear and with 
fulness of form and vision. 

Roberts says there is an orientalism which 
expresses complete satisfaction and unstinted 
joy, — " Oh, they are a happy pair, they wash 
themselves with milk." 

13. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of 

sweet herbs. 

They are rounded and full, healthful in color, 
and fragrant with aroma. 

13. His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh, — 

as the red lilies found in the East, the Am- 
aryllis-lutea, and they are speaking words of 
purity and health to the soul. " Grace is 
poured into thy lips." 1 

1 Psalms xlv. 2. 



94 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

" And all bare Him witness, and wondered 
at the words of grace which proceeded out of 
His mouth.'' 1 David says, — 

How sweet are Thy words unto my taste ! 
Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! 2 

14. His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl. 

As golden rings encircle the fingers, so 
His hands are the rings or orbs (it is " cylin- 
ders " in the margin) encircling gifts, golden 
and precious, ready for distribution to the 
needy. The color of the beryl-stone is the 
same color as that upon the wheels and 
the work mentioned in Ezekiel's vision 3 of 
the four wheels which represent the dispen- 
sations of God's providence. 

The beryl is the color of the sea, reflecting 
heavenly beauty, and when the sun shines 
upon it, has a refulgence like gold. Thus 
His hands reflect their shining work. 

14. His body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires. 

As ivory is firm, polished, and enduring, 
and the work is ornamented with sapphires, 

1 Luke iv. 22. 2 Psalms cxix. 103. 3 Ezekiel i. 16. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS, 95 

the color of the blue heavens, — an emblem 
of love, — so is His compassionate love bright 
and enduring. 

1 5. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets 
of fine gold. 

They are firm and strong, supporting all the 
body, and able and ready to do service for 
His bride. 

15. His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the 
cedars. 

His whole bearing is majestic, like the 
snow-capped Lebanon, the centre of the 
Syrian range of mountains, and overtopping 
them all ; and excellent as those erect, tower- 
ing, and evergreen cedars on its sides, which 
are firmly rooted, resisting the storms, and 
are objects of grandeur and beauty. As such 
they are used to denote kings and potentates 
of the highest rank. Their wood is incorrup- 
tible. They are called " trees of the Lord." 1 

It is promised that the righteous " shall 
grow like a cedar in Lebanon." 2 

1 Psalms civ. 16. 2 Ibid. xcii. 12. 



96 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

The bride could not find any nobler ob- 
jects in nature with which to compare Him. 

1 6. His mouth is most sweet. 

The mouth is the most expressive feature 
of the face, and the character of the individ- 
ual is generally stamped upon it. To the 
bride His mouth expressed sweetness of 
manner and disposition and every noble 
quality, and through it came words of wisdom 
and comfort. 

How sweet are Thy words unto my taste ! 
Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! 1 

It is therefore natural that she should 
again refer to that feature in closing her 
description of His person. 

She ends by saying, 

1 6. Yea, He is altogether lovely. 

This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, 
O daughters of Jerusalem. 

Can you wonder at my transports of love 
toward so glorious a person, especially when 
He has shown Himself my Friend ? 

1 Psalms cxix. 103. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 97 

Calling her Beloved her Friend she testi- 
fies to her faith in Him. 

Many persons may have love for each 
other without esteem, or may esteem each 
other without love, but friendship requires 
both love and esteem. Two persons claim- 
ing the title for each other of " my friend," 
must have some sentiment and aim in com- 
mon. When the bride calls her Beloved " my 
Friend," she does not mean to affirm that 
being her Friend, He is any the less her 
Beloved ; but she gives another reason why 
she is held to Him, and that is, their mutual 
esteem. 

As love begets love, His love to her has 
drawn her to Him ; she feels her dependence 
on Him, and He delights to support and 
bless her. 

As God called Abraham His friend, so 
Christ calls His Church His friend. 

As the bride rejoices in the perfections of 
the Bridegroom, so will the Church of Christ 
look upon His perfections with admiration 
and praise, and she will rejoice in proclaim - 

7 



98 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

ing to the world His majesty and beauty, — 
not only by words, but also by deeds. She 
will seek to be like her Beloved, following 
in His footsteps ; and the closer she follows 
Him the more she will be like Him ; and the 
more she is like Him, the closer will she be 
joined to Him. 



CHAPTER VI. 



TN the first part of the bride's intercourse 
with the daughters of Jerusalem they 
asked, What is thy Beloved more than 
another beloved ? but her glowing descrip- 
tion of His beauty and excellency makes 
them also eager to find Him, and they ask 
now, — 

i. Whither is thy Beloved gone, 
O thou fairest among women ? 
Whither hath thy Beloved turned Him, 
That we may seek Him with thee ? 

When the Church proclaims Christ's beauty 
and talks — 

Of the glorious majesty of His honor, 
And of His wondrous works, 1 

then will others also be led to desire Him. 

The bride now recalls where it was she 
had last seen her Bridegroom. She remem- 
1 Psalms cxlv. 5. 



100 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



bers the rich feast with Him in His garden, 
and knows it was there He loved to be, and 
she answers to the earnest inquiry of the 
daughters, — 

2. My Beloved is gone down to His garden, to the 
beds of spices, 
To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 

These spices in the garden are supposed 
to denote the prayers and praises of Christ's 
Church, which are as acceptable an offering 
to Him as the odors of the spices are to the 
Bridegroom. " He gathers them in golden 
vials, and with heaven's incense from His 
golden censer, He offers them upon the 
golden altar before the throne." 1 

It was the fragrance arising from the beds 
of spices which drew the Bridegroom into 
His garden. There is where the bride should 
have waited for Him, and cultivated the 
spices and the lilies, until He bade her go 
to rest. There it is where she now seeks and 
finds Him ; and with rapture she exclaims, — 

1 Revelation v. 8 ; viii. 3. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 101 



3. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. 
He feedeth His flock among the lilies. 

She rejoices in belonging to Him ; and 
knows that He cares for her and is indeed 
her Friend. 

Christ feeds His Church as a shepherd 
feeds his flock with rich pastures. It is not 
mean food that He gives her ; but beautiful, 
fragrant lilies, heavenly food, that she may 
grow in beauty. 

As the bride is now in the way of duty, 
drawing others to Him, and comes to Him 
with penitence, His arms are open to receive 
her, and thus lighted by His smile she is 
charming in His eyes ; as "when the sun arises 
with healing in His wings," 1 the languish- 
ing, drooping flowers revive. He remembers 
His marriage covenant with her, and praises 
her beauty, which " was perfect through His 
majesty which He had put upon her." 2 
4. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah. 

The word " Tirzah " means pleasant. Tirzah 
was a beautiful town in Ephraim, and situated 

1 Malachi iv. 2. 2 Ezekiel xvi. 14. 



102 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



in juxtaposition to Jerusalem. In the days 
of Jeroboam it was the seat of the royal 
residence. 

Roberts says, " In the East handsome 
women are often compared to their sacred 
cities." 

But the climax of the Bridegroom's com- 
parisons is, — 

4. Comely as Jerusalem, 

which is, as David expresses it, — 

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, 
Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, 
The city of the great King. 1 

Especially was Jerusalem comely in the 
magnificence and symmetrical proportions 
of its temple, situated on the north side of 
Mount Zion, and which was a type of 
Christ's Church universal. 

He also likens her beauty and majesty to 
a bannered host, — 

4. Terrible as an army with banners, 

1 Psalms xlviii. 2. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 103 

which excites reverence and awe by its in- 
vincible array. 

He declares her conquest of Him when 
He says, 

5. Turn away thine eyes from me, 
For they have overcome me. 

Then continuing, He recounts the same 
power which had first captivated Him ; thus 
giving her a double assurance of His love : — 

5. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, 
That lie along the side of Gilead. 

6. Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes, 
Which are come up from the washing ; 
Whereof every one hath twins, 

And none is bereaved among them. 

7. Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate 
Behind thy veil. 

The beauty of holiness is the adornment of 
Christ's Church. When she is walking in 
love, and her inward life is in unison with 
Christ, her outward appearance will show the 
characteristics within. 

In the eyes of the Bridegroom His chosen 
has no equal. He tells her, — 



104 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

8. There are threescore queens, and fourscore con- 
cubines, 
And virgins without number, — 

perhaps alluding to the daughters of Jeru- 
salem who have accompanied the bride in 
her search for the Bridegroom ; or He may 
refer to other kings who have queens and 
concubines many ; but none of them can 
compare with her ; to Him there is but one 
spouse : — 

9. My dove, my undefiled, is but one ; 
She is the only one of her mother ; 
She is the choice one of her that bare her. 

The dove to which He compares her is 
celebrated for its conjugal fidelity ; it pairs 
for life, and is a symbol of purity. 

As the bride was but one to the Bride- 
groom, so must the Bridegroom be all in all 
to His bride. 

" There are gods many, and lords many ; 
yet to the Church there is one Lord, Jesus 
Christ, through whom are all things, and we 
through Him." 1 

1 1 Corinthians viii. 6. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 105 

" Christ is the centre of the Church's 
unity," as Paul says, to sum up all things in 
Christ, the things in the heavens, and the 
things upon the earth. 1 Thus all are bound 
in Him. 

9. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed ; 
Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they 
praised her. 

They saw her charms when they called her 
the "fairest among women;" and now they 
witness the great love and esteem in which 
her Bridegroom holds her, and their admira- 
tion breaks forth in praises. 

When the Church is clothed in the beauty 
of holiness, and Christ Himself commends 
her, nominal Christians will seek her in- 
fluence, and even the world will acknowledge 
her excellences, though some may envy and 
persecute her. 

The Bridegroom continues His commenda- 
tions. He has again received her to His arms, 
and she is more precious to Him than ever. 



1 Ephesians i. 10. 



106 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

10. Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, 
Fair as the moon, 
Clear as the sun, — 

like the moon, with so mild, gentle and soft 
a radiance. As it reflects the light of the 
sun, so she reflects the majesty He has put 
upon her, and thus typifies the Church reflect 
ing the glory of the Sun of Righteousness. 

" " The Lord shall be unto thee an everlast- 
ing light ; and thy God thy glory." 1 

The effulgence of the Sun of Righteous- 
ness shines with such lustre as to penetrate 
to the inmost recesses of the sinner's heart, 
and reveal the hideousness of sin within. 
Therefore when the Church comes at last, 
with flying banners, her Bridegroom leading 
her on to victory over His and her enemies, 
she will be to them — 

10. Terrible as an army with banners. 

The Bridegroom was watching the devel- 
opment of His garden, that it might produce 
fruit in perfection, and that no weeds should 



1 Isaiah xvi. 19. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 10? 

be allowed to grow there ; and He thus ex- 
plains His absence, — 

ii. I went down into the garden of nuts, 
To see the green plants of the valley. 

These garden nuts were usually planted in a 
valley with pools of water near, for irrigation, 
and a writer says, " There are still places in 
Syria bearing the name of ' nut vale/ ' fig 
vale,'" etc. 

It is probable that this division of the 
garden was the nursery, where were the 
seedlings and shoots of the nut-trees, consist- 
ing of olives, walnuts, and almonds, besides 
fig-trees, quince, and pomegranate, orange, 
lemon, and mulberry, with rare and precious 
plants, many of which were exotics. 

All through the poem we read of their gar- 
dens of spices and fruits and flowers. The 
garden of nuts represents a garden on a large 
scale with extensive cultivation. It was the 
garden of a King. 

Christ's Church is sometimes called His 
garden ; there are many divisions in it and 
many rare plants and exotics. It is fragrant 



108 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

and beautiful, and yields precious fruits, under 
His superintendence. 
He also wished — 

ii. To see whether the vine budded, 

And the pomegranates were in flower. 

The Bridegroom had compared the modest 
blushes of His bride to a " piece of a pome- 
granate behind her veil" (iv. 3), and He de- 
lights to see this beautiful fruit in flower, 
as He does to know that the germ of her 
modesty is blossoming. 

Christ notes the early development of the 
graces in His Church, and examines His gar- 
den to see if its flowers are blooming and 
forming into fruit. He also watches over His 
vine from its first buddings, that the young 
shoots may grow into branches, and bear 
much fruit. 1 

When He heard her voice calling (in the 
third verse), " I am my Beloved's and my 
Beloved is mine," He tells her that He was so 
moved by her lamentation after Him — 

1 John xv. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 09 

12. Or ever I was aware, my soul set me 

Among the chariots of my princely people. 

In the margin it is, "made me like the 
chariots of Ammi-nadib," and I was speeding 
to embrace my love. 

In Chronicles 1 we find Amminadab, the 
chief of the house of Uzziel, a prince and a 
Levite whom David selected, among others, 
to bring up the ark. There was great joy and 
shouting on the occasion, and it is probable 
that Amminadab may have been celebrated as 
driving swift chariots, which he willingly used 
(as his name indicated a man of generosity) 
to carry up his brethren, the Levites, who 
were appointed to go to the house of Obed- 
edom the Gittite, and from there carry the ark 
upon their shoulders to the city of David. 

The expression " made me like the chariots 
of Ammi-nadib," may have become a proverb 
to represent earnestness and alacrity in the 
pursuit of any desirable object. Thus, when 
the Church of Christ is seeking to return from 
her wanderings and is calling after Him, He 

1 1 Chronicles xv. 10, 12. 



1 10 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 



is always ready to answer her call, and will 
hasten to meet her. 

He says, " For a small moment have I for- 
saken thee ; but with great mercies will I 
gather thee." 1 

She had heard the Bridegroom's voice call- 
ing her and entreating, — 

13. Return, return, O Shulamite ; 

Return, return, that we may look upon thee. 

He was drawing her w r ith loving cords, call- 
ing her u Shulamite," which means peaceable, 
perfect. 

She is perfect with His imputed righteous- 
ness, perfect in her union with Him, and will 
be faultless when she is fully clothed, and He 
takes her to be with Him forever. 

Some writers think He calls her the Shu- 
lamite, from " Salem," which is Jerusalem, the 
birth-place of the Church. " Salem " also 
means peace, ox perfect. 

Heaven, the new Jerusalem, is the Salem 
of the Church triumphant. 

1 Isaiah liv. 7. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 1 1 



In Salem also is His tabernacle, 
And His dwelling-place in Zion. 1 
Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one 

was born in her, 
And the Most High Himself shall establish her. 2 

Feeling her unworthiness, she asks, — 
13. What will ye see in the Shulamite ? 

He answers : — 

13. As it were the company of two armies, — 

that is, the hosts of God, which are for the 
advance and the defence of the truth. 

The Church of Christ comprises the whole 
army of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, 
for all shall be brought in. " Two armies " 
in the margin is called " Mahanaim," the name 
Jacob gave to the place where hosts of angels 
met him on his journey to Canaan. 3 

The Bridegroom had twice before said His 
bride was " terrible as an army with banners," 
and now He calls her a double host. She is 
a tower of strength supported by Divine 
love. " His banner over her was love ; " but 

1 Psalms lxxvi. 2. 2 Ibid, lxxxvii. 5. 

3 Genesis xxxii. 1, 2. 



112 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

He will be " a very flame of the Lord " to 
His and her enemies. 

The Bridegroom describes more fully in 
the next chapter what is to be seen in the 
Shulamite, His bride, by giving a completer 
portrait of her, as perfect in all her members. 



CHAPTER VII. 



T T E begins His encomium this time with 
the feet, for they had brought her in 
search of Him : — 

vii. i. How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O 
prince's daughter ! 
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, 
The work of the hands of a cunning workman. 

God, the great King, calls the members of 
His Church His children, and in the forty- 
fifth Psalm the bride is spoken of as the 
King's daughter. In this Song the Bride- 
groom frequently designates her as "my 
sister-bride." She is thus recognized as 
the daughter of a king, a princess, and in 
rank fit to be His spouse. 

Her feet are beautiful in sandals, thus 

signifying that she is ready for walks of 

usefulness. In the East the sandals are 
8 



114 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

removed when entering a house ; here they 
are represented as on the feet. Paul says : 
"And having shod your feet with the prepa- 
ration of the gospel of peace." 1 

Her limbs are perfectly adapted to carry 
on the beautiful work which the feet start 
out to perform. They are " girded with 
truth." Christ is the workman, " from whom 
all the body fitly framed and knit together 
through that which every joint supplieth, 
according to the working in due measure of 
each several part, maketh the increase of the 
body unto the building up of itself in love." 2 

The image in the third verse has been 
given before, showing that the Church is 
capable of nourishing her children, that is, 
the young converts, or inexperienced. It 
has milk for babes. 

The similitude in this second verse is now 
added, to signify the full nourishment af- 
forded to the whole body of the Church, — 

2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, 
Wherein no mingled wine is wanting. 

1 Ephesians vi. 15. 2 Ibid. iv. 16. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 1 5 



It is in that healthy condition that it needs 
nothing more to strengthen it. 

It is said in Proverbs, third chapter, — 

Fear the Lord and depart from evil ; 
It shall be health to thy navel, — 

that is, to thy whole body. 

2. Thy belly is like an heap of wheat 
Set about with lilies. 

That part from which the rest of the body 
is nourished is healthful and vigorous in its 
vitality and ability to perform its functions. 
It is like the heap of selected wheat in the 
storehouse, that is adorned with flowers as 
a sign of its superior quality. 

3. Thy two breasts are like two fawns 
That are twins of a roe. 

4. Thy neck is like the tower of ivory. 

He had before likened her neck to David's 
tower of marble, signifying strength and 
dignity ; but now He compares it to ivory, 
which has a beauty and lustre of its own, 
and by its fineness of grain and firmness of 



Il6 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 

texture is capable of receiving the highest 
polish ; so also has the Church of Christ an 
intrinsic beauty, and by her cultivation of 
every virtue she can be made to grow into 
the brightest form of spiritual life. 

The Bridegroom now eulogizes her head, 
the crown of all this beauty, which this 
tower of ivory supports. He begins with 
her eyes, the windows of the soul, — 

4. Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon 3 by the gate 
of Bath-rabbim. 

These pools probably were celebrated for 
their clearness and beauty. Such eyes were 
not morbid, but were clear, joyous, and trust- 
ing ; and in them the Bridegroom saw His 
own image reflected. 

4. Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon 
Which looketh toward Damascus. 

A prominent nose was considered by the 
Hebrews as representing intelligence and 
force of character. 

The comparison to the tower of Lebanon 
may allude to some watchtower that Solomon 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 117 

had erected on Mount Lebanon, both beauti- 
ful and commanding in its prominence. 

Or the comparison may be drawn from the 
view presented of Mount Hermon, which is 
Lebanon's most conspicuous peak. It is the 
most beautiful mountain in Syria or Palestine, 
and is covered with perpetual snow, which is 
of such great depth and smoothness as to 
give it a velvety appearance. For that rea- 
son it is called " the White Mountain. " 

From Smith's Dictionary we learn that 
Hermon had various names given to it by 
different peoples, each descriptive of some 
striking feature, as " the Elevated," " the Chief 
Mountain," "the Snowy Mountain." The 
Sidonians called it " Sirion," from a word 
meaning to glitter, and the Amorites " She- 
nir," from a word meaning to clatter} — both 
words signifying breastplate, suggested by the 
reflection of the sun's rays when shining 
upon its rounded top. 

It is said that from whatever part of Pal- 
estine the eye is turned northward, Hermon 

1 Deuteronomy iii. 9. 



11 



I 1 8 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

terminates the view. It must have presented 
a strong contrast to the dark green foliage 
which covered the sides of the lower and 
intermediate bluffs. Perhaps the poet David 
drew his picture of " white as snow in 
Salmon," 1 from the point of view in which 
he saw Hermon. 

The Bridegroom now sums up the descrip- 
tion of the whole head, and says, — 

5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel. 

Carmel is a lofty, majestic promontory in 
central Palestine, over one thousand seven 
hundred feet in height, running out to the 
Mediterranean Sea. It is shaped like a 
flattened cone. It is described by different 
writers in Smith's Dictionary as clothed with 
verdure, and covered, in some parts, with 
impenetrable brushwood of oak and other 
evergreens, and in other parts, "bright with 
various kinds of flowers." " Still the fragrant 
lovely mountain that he was of old." " The 
whole mountain-side was dressed with blos- 

1 Psalms lxviii. 14. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. I IQ 

soms, and flowering shrubs, and fragrant 
herbs." "All these flowers wafted their 
fragrance in volumes through the air." "It 
was the garden of Eden run wild." 

Solomon could not find anything in nature 
more beautiful, with which to compare the 
head of the spouse of Christ, than this fruit- 
ful hill. 

The prophet Isaiah likens the prosperity 
of Christ's kingdom to " the excellency of 
Carmel." 1 " Thou shalt also be a crown of 
beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal 
diadem in the hand of thy God." 2 

The Bridegroom adds, — 

5. And the hair of thine head like purple, — 

that is, a beautiful shade of purplish black. 
In the margin it is "like the purple of a 
king," emblematic of royalty. w It was a 
very expensive color, obtained from the murex 
shell-fish, and found in the Mediterranean 
Sea. It is said that only a single drop is found, 
in a small vessel, in the throat of each fish." 3 

1 Isaiah xxxv. 2. 2 Ibid. lxii. 3. 

3 Smith's Dictionary. 



120 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

By this purple crowning beauty He repre- 
sented her union with the royal Bridegroom. 
And thus — 

5. The King is held captive in the tresses thereof. 

All these perfections with which the King 
has adorned His chosen bride fit her with 
such becoming grace, as to bind Him to 
her. As the Bridegroom approves her and 
exclaims, — 

6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, 
O love, for delights ! — 

so Christ delights in His Church as she 
walks with Him. He delights in the conso- 
lations which she gives to the weak and faint- 
ing. He delights in her conscious dignity 
which enables her to hold her head erect 
while her eyes are ever looking to Him. All 
her outward beauties are delights to Him, 
because they are the manifestation of her 
inward character. The more the Church 
cultivates these characteristics, the more 
acceptable she is to the Bridegroom. 

Having commended the various points of 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 121 



beauty in His bride, He now takes in her full 
proportions. 

7. This thy stature is like to a palm-tree, 
And thy breasts to clusters. 

Like the palm-tree, she is upright and con- 
stant, not deviating from the right course. 
The palm-tree grows straight up toward 
heaven. It is said of it that the elasticity of 
its fibre is such that it asserts its uprightness 
even when loaded with weights. Oppression 
and persecution have always advanced the 
growth of the Church heavenward. The taller 
the palm-tree grows, the more expansive are 
its branches, and the greener is its foliage. 
The nearer to heaven the Church lives, the 
richer and brighter is its life. The spreading 
branches of the palm are used as emblems of 
the Church's victory over the flesh and over 
sin. We read of " a great multitude which 
no man could number standing before the 
throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white 
robes, and palms in their hands," 1 as the 
symbols of their final victory. 

1 Revelation vii. 9. 



122 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



The fruit of the palm, growing in clusters 
high up beneath its spreading branches, rep- 
resents the virtues of the Church, which, like 
those shadowed clusters protected from the 
scorching sun, are shielded from the injury of 
fiery persecution, and grow in the light and 
warmth of heaven. Like those clusters, her 
virtues are conspicuous, beautiful, and life- 
giving, that those who are born of the 
Church may always find their nourishment 
in it. Roberts quotes a saying in the East, 
" The wicked spring like grass, but good men 
endure like the palm-tree, and bear much 
fruit." 

8. I said, I will climb up into the palm-tree, 
I will take hold of the branches thereof. 

He would thus declare Himself her stand- 
ard-bearer and defender, and proclaim His 
final victory over the kingdoms of the world. 

8. Let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine. 

The vine yields more abundant and refresh- 
ing fruit than the palm-tree. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 23 

8. And the smell of thy breath like apples. 

The fragrance of her breath, which is 
her words of wisdom and affection, let them 
be as a sweet savor, and as acceptable as 
when Noah offered his offering unto the 
Lord, " and the Lord smelled the sweet 
savor." 1 

9. And thy mouth like the best wine, 

That goeth down sweetly for my beloved, 
Causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. 

The mouth is but the echo of the heart. 
Christ says, "The good man out of the good 
treasure of his heart bringeth forth that 
which is good ; and the evil man out of the 
evil treasure bringeth forth that which is 
evil : for of the abundance of the heart 
his mouth speaketh." 2 He would have her 
mouth always refreshing to herself and to 
others, by giving from her heart loving ex- 
pressions of comfort and cheer ; for " a merry 
heart is a good medicine," 3 and has a reflex 
influence both on the one that gives the 

1 Genesis viii. 21. 2 Luke vi. 45. 

3 Proverbs xvii. 22. 



124 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

cheer, and on the one that receives it. " He 
that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual 
feast," 1 and it is like the best wine that is 
given to the sick or aged, and such as would 
restore the fainting and " bitter in soul." 2 
" The words of a wise man's mouth are gra- 
cious." 3 Such is the wisdom Christ would 
wish His Church to have, and all her words 
of love and cheer are written in His book of 
remembrance. 

His commendations of her have drawn her 
closely to Him, and in the joy of her union 
with Him she again exclaims with rapture, — 

io. I am my Beloved's, 

And His desire is toward me. 

This joy is increased by the fact that not 
only is she His, but also that His desire is 
toward her. Thus the Church is assured of 
the love Christ bears to her, and with exulta- 
tion she can say, " I will greatly rejoice in 
the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; 
for He hath clothed me with the garments 

1 Proverbs xv. r5- 2 Ibid. xxxi. 6. 

3 Ecclesiastes x. 12. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 125 

of salvation, He hath covered me with the 
robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom deck- 
eth himself with a garland, and as a bride 
adorneth herself with her jewels." 1 

The bride invites Him to go with her in 
her work : — 

11. Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the field ; 
Let us lodge in the villages. 

These villages were probably the huts or 
temporary residences in the fields outside of 
the city, where the laborers lived during the 
vintage. The bride wished to make amends 
for her former indolence by increased zeal 
in her work, which she knew would be suc- 
cessful with her Bridegroom's presence to 
animate and guide her. She would enter 
with Him into the humble dwellings of the 
poor, and lodge among the laborers, and by 
their presence and counsel encourage and 
cheer them, and in this way turn their huts 
into homes of joy. She would be prompt 
in business, too, setting an example to the 
underworkers to rise betimes: — 

1 Isaiah Ixi. 10. 



126 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

12. Let us get up early to the vineyards ; 

Let us see whether the vine hath budded, and 

its blossoms be open, 
And the pomegranates be in flower : 
There will I give Thee my love. 

Thereby she would show her interest in 
the work, and manifest her love to Him. 
She also knows that if her Bridegroom is 
with her, every burden will be made lighter, 
and the toil sweeter. 

When the Church is diligent in business, 
and fervent in spirit, working with Christ, 
the buds will develop and grow into blos- 
soms, and the blossoms into fruit ; and while 
she is watchful, the foxes cannot enter to 
destroy the vines. 

The bride shows her earnestness in urging 
Him to go with her by a reminder that the 
spring is far advanced. Thus Christ would 
have His Church bring forth her strong rea- 
sons, that He may prove her zeal for Him, 
and her desire for His presence. 

The bride says, — 

13. The mandrakes give forth fragrance, — 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 12 J 

showing that they are ripened and fit to eat. 
The fruit is gathered about the time of wheat 
harvest, which, in that land, is in May. By 
some scholars the mandrakes are supposed to 
be what the Arabs call " love plants." It is 
said that they are very strongly scented when 
ripe ; but to most Europeans the odor is not 
agreeable. 

As another inducement for Him to accom- 
pany her, she tells Him, — 

13. And at our doors are all manner of precious 
fruits, new and old, 
Which I have laid up for Thee, O my Beloved. 

Like a good wife who seeks the interest of 
her husband, she is not satisfied with the work 
that she has done in the past ; but she is still 
busy getting stores for Him. 

When Christ's Church thus works for Him, 
not resting upon past good deeds, but is 
pressing forward to fill up the measure of 
that which is required of her, then He will 
be with her and bless her according to His 
promise : — ■ 



128 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

" Bring ye the whole tithe into the store- 
house, . . . and prove me now herewith, saith 
the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the 
windows of heaven, and pour you out a bless- 
ing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it." 1 

1 Malachi iii. io. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HE bride commences her address here 



by expressing, in still stronger terms 
than any she has heretofore used, her ardent 
love, and desire for a greater intimacy with 
and nearness to her Bridegroom : — 

viii. i. Oh that Thou wert as my brother, 

That sucked the breasts of my mother ! 
When I should find Thee without, I would 

kiss Thee ; 
Yea, and none would despise me. 

She wishes that, in addition to their mar- 
riage bond, He might be as a brother to her. 
A brother would cover his sister's defects ; 
for any fault in the sister would reflect on the 
household. 

If the bride were held as if she were of the 
same royal stock as the Bridegroom, she 
would be honorably esteemed. As a sister, 




9 



130 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 

one of the same family, she would resemble 
her brother, and in a measure partake of the 
same natural tendencies. The world would 
recognize the likeness, and she could with 
more freedom express her sisterly love. 

The Bridegroom has already owned this 
endearing relation, and called her His M sister- 
bride." 

God is the Father of His Church, whom 
" He also foreordained to be conformed to the 
image of His Son, that He might be the 
first-born among many brethren. " 1 

" For both He that sanctifieth and they that 
are sanctified are all of one : for which cause 
He is not ashamed to call them brethren." 2 

She longs to be more and more like her 
Bridegroom, as one brought up in the same 
house and filled with the same spirit. 

She says, — 

2. I would lead Thee, and bring Thee into my 
mother's house, 
Who would instruct me. 

That is, her mother would teach her how 

1 Romans viii. 29. 2 Hebrews ii. 11. 



ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SOXGS. 1 3 I 

she could best serve Him. This seems to be 

her chief desire and aim. She adds, — 

2. I would cause Thee to drink of spiced wine, 
Of the juice of my pomegranate. 

This spiced wine, made fragrant with aro- 
matics, is still considered a great delicacy in 
the East. It is supposed by some that, al- 
though fermented, it is a weak wine, and is 
not intoxicating. The bride would give it to 
her Bridegroom, for she would give Him her 
choicest gifts. 

In return she would have the inspiration of 
His wisdom to guide her. Their communion 
would be sweet, her confidence in Him would 
be strengthened, and her faith and assurance 
complete when, she says, — 

3. His left hand should be under my head, 
And his right hand should embrace me. 

David experiences this when he says, "Thy 
right hand upholdeth me." 1 Moses, in his 
blessing on the tribes of Israel, says, — 

The Eternal God is thy dwelling-place, 
And underneath are the everlasting arms. 2 

1 Psalms Ixiii. S. 2 Deuteronomy xxxiii. 27. 



132 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 

Having entered into this delightful inter- 
course with her Beloved, as if fearing it might 
be interrupted, she says, — 

4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
That ye stir not up, nor awake my Love, 
Until He please. 

She has made this same charge to her 
sisters at previous times, and under similar 
circumstances ; and she here repeats it as a 
matter of great import, that they should do 
nothing to disturb the harmony between her 
and her Bridegroom. 

When Christ is in the midst of His Church 
she should be careful not to grieve away 
the Spirit by any discordant questionings or 
j anglings. 

When the bride elect was watching for the 
coming of her Bridegroom to claim her as His 
own, as she saw Him approaching with such 
grandeur and magnificence, she cried out 
in joy, "Who is this that cometh up out of 
the wilderness ? " but now it is the daughters 
of Jerusalem, as they see her leaning with so 
much affection upon her Beloved, that ask, - — 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 33 

5. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, 
Leaning upon her Beloved ? 

The Bridegroom answers by turning to His 
bride, and asserting His claim to her : — 

5. Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: 
There thy mother was in travail with thee, 
There was she in travail that brought thee forth. 

M For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought 
forth her children." 1 

" Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one 
and that one was born in her." 2 

Under the apple-tree she was pledged to 
Him ; there was her birth-place ; there her 
mother gave her to Him ; there she was 
raised up to the joy of the bride ; as she said 
(ii- 3),- 

I sat down under His shadow with great delight. 

It was the Lord that brought the Church 
out of the wilderness of darkness and sin. 

Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. 
He found Him in a desert land, 
And in the waste howling wilderness ; 



1 Isaiah lxvi. 8. 



2 Psalms lxxxvii. 5. 



134 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

He compassed him about, He cared for him, 
He kept him as the apple of His eye. 1 

Christ's Church is as dear to Him now as 
she was then ; and when she leans upon Him, 
and trusts in His righteousness, He will sup- 
port and uphold her with His power and 
grace. 

The acknowledgment of the Bridegroom, 
in which He claims her as His own, causes 
her to rejoice, and to seek to strengthen the 
bond between them. She would have the 
surety of it in the seal of the covenant. She 
asks for His constant remembrance, - — 

6. Set me as a seal upon Thine heart, 
As a seal upon Thine arm, — 

as the engravings in the breastplate of 
judgment which Aaron was to bear upon his 
heart, " when he goeth in unto the holy place, 
for a memorial before the Lord continually." 2 
And also like the " two stones upon the 
shoulderpieces of the ephod, to be stones of 
memorial for the children of Israel." 3 Or, as 

1 Deuteronomy xxxii. 9, 10. 2 Exodus xxviii. 29. 

3 Ibid, xxviii. 12. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. I 35 

the Lord comforted Zion with the assurances, 
" Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms 
of my hands ; thy walls are continually before 
me; " 1 and again He says, " I will make thee 
as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the 
Lord of hosts." 2 

The seal would be a sign of the marriage- 
covenant between the Bridegroom and His 
bride. If the seal were not attached to the 
covenant, the document would be invalid. 

The heart is the seat of the affections and 
the seat of life ; it was in His heart she 
wished to live. She would also be a seal 
upon His arm, that she might be ever before 
His eyes. 

6. For love is strong as death. 

Death conquers all life, but it has no power 
to quench that love. 

6. Jealousy is cruel as the grave ; 

The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, 
A very flame of the Lord. 

Jealousy here expresses a very ardent love, 
and she fears lest anything should come 

1 Isaiah xlix. 16. 2 Haggai ii. 23. 



136 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

between her and her Beloved that would tend 
to turn Him away from her as the chief object 
of His affections. But she feels assured, that 
if she is sealed upon His heart, she will be 
held there. She is also watchful of herself, 
and suspicious of everything that would draw 
her away from Him ; as Paul says, "Who shall 
separate us from the love of Christ ? shall 
tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or 
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? 
. . . For I am persuaded, that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor pow- 
ers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from 
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 1 

The Bridegroom responds with an assur- 
ance of the depth of His love to her: — 

7. Many waters cannot quench love, 
Neither can the floods drown it : 
If a man would give all the substance of his house 

for love, 
He would utterly be contemned. 

1 Romans viii. 35, 38, 39. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 37 

Paul understood the value of love when 
he said, " And if I bestow all my goods 
to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be 
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me 
nothing." 1 

Neither would all the riches of the world 
satisfy the longings of Christ's Church, if the 
blessing of Christ's love were wanting. 

The bride, now feeling secure in her Bride- 
groom's affections, glows with generous love 
toward her little sister, who she desires may 
be brought into their communion. She tells 
her Beloved, — 

8. We have a little sister, 
And she hath no breasts. 

Most commentators suppose that by the 
"little sister," is meant an allusion, propheti- 
cally, to the Gentile nations which were to 
be brought into Christ's flock. She had not 
as yet developed, and was without nourishing 
power; but in time she would grow into full 
stature, and symmetrical proportions. The 
promise was, "And they shall declare my 

1 I Corinthians xiii. 3. 



138 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

glory among the nations." 1 " For thus saith 
the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to 
her like a river, and the glory of the nations 
like an overflowing stream." 2 

The bride asks, in view of the present 
condition of the little sister, — 

8. What shall we do for our sister 

In the day when she shall be spoken for ? 

The Bridegroom replies : When she ma- 
tures, 

9. If she be a wall, — 

an image which signifies strength having 
deep and broad foundations, as city walls 
were built in the days of Solomon, that is, 
if she is " built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself 
being the chief corner-stone," — 3 

9. We will build upon her a turret of silver. 

All through the Song the bride represents 
the Jewish Church, and is likened to a gar- 
den and to a vineyard, and the " little sister," 
the Gentile Church, may be the wall which 

1 Isaiah lxvi. 19. 2 Ibid. lxvi. 12. 3 Ephesians ii. 20. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 39 

shall surround the garden ; as the Jewish 
Church is to be brought into the Christian 
Church, and not the Christian into the 
Jewish. 

This turret or battlement, like those towers 
built on the walls for watchmen to guard the 
vineyards against marauders, the Bridegroom 
will build up into a palace of strength and 
beauty ; and with its pure light radiating over 
all, it shall be a comfort and protection to 
the workers in the garden. 

The Christian Church, in its beginnings, 
was but a poor and insignificant body, but 
Christ espoused her to Himself, appointed 
" salvation for walls and bulwarks/' 1 and 
beautified her into a palace of silver. 

The bride must do everything for the 
advancement of the Bridegroom's kingdom, 
and He will bless her efforts. If the little 
sister has but one talent and improves that, 
He will enlarge it into greater magnitude ; 
and if she has more than one talent and uses 
them wisely, He will increase their value. 

1 Isaiah xxvi. 1. 



140 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

9. And if she be a door, — • 

that is, a gate of entrance for all that is 
good, and a bar to all that is bad, — 

9. We will enclose her with boards of cedar. 

As cedar is one of the strongest and most- 
durable of woods, as well as beautiful and 
fragrant, so will we make her strong and 
fragrant by shutting out everything that 
can defile or harm her. " Thou shalt call 
thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise." 1 

This Song would not have been complete 
without reference to the Gentile Church, as 
having part in the marriage to the Bride- 
groom. When the time came the Bride- 
groom said to Judah : " Open ye the gates 
that the righteous nation which keepeth 
truth may enter in." 2 

The bride rejoices in knowing that her 
Bridegroom will do all He promises for the 
little sister, and she expresses her confidence 
by declaring what He has done for her. She 
says, — 

1 Isaiah lx. 18. 2 Ibid. xxvi. 2. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 141 

10. I am a wall, and my breasts like the towers 
thereof. 

He had already built her up into a tower 
of beauty, and she was happy trusting in 
Him, and the whole world looked with admi- 
ration on this beautiful bride. " And thy 
renown went forth among the nations for 
thy beauty, for it was perfect through my 
majesty, which I had put upon thee, saith 
the Lord God." 1 He was pleased with His 
own workmanship, and with her growth in 
the graces which He had bestowed upon her, 
and with triumph she could say, 

10. Then was I in His eyes as one that found peace. 

The Bridegroom and His bride have been 
talking of the future development of the little 
sister, — supposed to symbolize the Gentile 
Church which was yet to be brought into 
the kingdom of God, — and the Bridegroom 
has given His promise concerning her. He 
now speaks of the vineyard within their 
garden, which represents the Jewish Church. 

1 Ezekiel xvi. 14. 



I42 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

The similes of the vineyard within the gar- 
den, and the wall which is to surround it 
represent His Church universal. 

He cheers His bride by telling her how 
much He regards His vineyard, and what He 
will do for it : — 

1 1 . Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon ; 
He let out the vineyard unto keepers ; 

Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a 
thousand pieces of silver. 

Baalhamon was a place famous for its fine 
vineyards. In Isaiah we read of places 
"where there were a thousand vines at a 
thousand silverlings." 1 That probably was 
the usual rent for a good vineyard. Solo- 
mon's vineyard was a valuable one, and had 
many keepers ; but, says the Bridegroom, — 

12. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me : 
Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, 

And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. 

Solomon has his rent, and those who work 
receive their pay ; but the Bridegroom says, 
" My vineyard is under my own eye : the 

1 Isaiah vii. 23. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 43 

fruit is all mine, and those who work with 
me, and for me, shall have their reward from 
mine own hand;" as He says, "I the Lord 
do keep it ; I will water it every moment ; 
lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and 
day." 1 

This He tells His bride to encourage her 
in her work for Him, as He is about to leave 
her for a season ; and that she may seek His 
counsel and advice, who is always ready to 
listen, and delights to have intercourse with 
her, He thus addresses her: — 

13. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, — 

in these gardens, which He has enclosed in 
one, and set apart for Himself, where 
her work lies ; where she dwells that she 
may watch and cultivate them, and keep 
them clean from noxious weeds, which if 
left would choke the good seed that He 
has sown, — 

13. The companions hearken for thy voice. 

These companions (the friends of the Bride- 

1 Isaiah xxvii. 3. 



144 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

groom) that remain, and are workers in the 
gardens, they listen with pleasure to thy voice. 

13. Cause me to hear it. 

It is the same command which Christ has 
left to His Church : " If ye abide in me, and 
my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye 
will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein 
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit." 1 

" The prayer of the upright is His de- 
light." 2 If His directions are obeyed, when 
He returns to claim His own, He will find 
the clusters of the vine ripe and ready for 
the vintage, the pomegranate loaded with 
its blushing fruit waiting to be gathered, 
the figs all ripened, and the flowers burst- 
ing into bloom ; all the chief spices, the 
henna, and the spikenard, the saffron, the 
calamus, and cinnamon, with all frankincense, 
and myrrh, and aloes giving forth their fra- 
grance. Nor will the garden of nuts and 
the exotics of His introducing be forgotten : 
1 John xv. 7, 8. 2 Proverbs xv. 8. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 45 

all are in one enclosure, divisions of one 
garden. 

All the branches of Christ's Church in 
Heaven and on earth constitute one body ; 
that body is His bride, and He and His bride 
are one. " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches : He that abideth in Me, and I in 
Him, the same beareth much fruit." 1 

Christ the Bridegroom goes to Heaven 
that He may prepare a place for His bride 
the Church, to be with Him, where there 
shall not be any more toil, with fatigue 
and sorrow and disappointments ; as Christ 
said to His disciples when about leaving 
them, " In my Father's house are many man- 
sions ; if it were not so I would have told 
you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, 
I will come again, and receive you unto 
Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." 2 

Filled with these joyful anticipations His 
bride replies, — 

1 John xv. 5. 2 John xiv. 2, 3. 

10 



146 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 



14. Make haste, my Beloved, 

And be Thou like to a roe or to a young hart 
Upon the mountains of spices. 

Whom have I in Heaven but Thee ? 
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside 
Thee." 1 

" The voice of Thy watchmen ! they lift up 
the voice, together do they sing ; for they 
shall see, eye to eye, when the Lord returneth 
to Zion." 2 Then will the day break, and 
the shadows flee away when the bride shall 
behold the King in His beauty, — his bride, 
the lily, no longer among thorns ; but taken 
to be forever with the Lord, where she will 
feast with Him and drink of the new wine in 
His kingdom. 3 

These fourteen closing verses of the Song 
are like the responsive Psalms of David, and 
are echoes of loving expressions between the 
Bridegroom and His bride. Each seems to 
be desirous of strengthening the bond of 
union between them. Christ's everlasting 
arms are about His bride the Church, and she 

1 Psalms lxxiii. 25. 2 Isaiah Hi. 8. 3 Matthew xxvi. 29. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 147 

clings to Him. The bride, overflowing with 
love, seeks to bring into the garden those who 
are outside of the garden wall. She joins her 
voice to the voice of the Spirit. " And the 
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that 
heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is 
athirst, let him come : he that will, let him 
take the water of life freely." 1 " Blessed are 
they which are bidden to the marriage supper 
of the Lamb." 2 

Christ also prays for them who are yet out- 
side : " Neither for these only do I pray, 
but for them also that believe on me through 
their word ; that they may all be one, even as 
Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that 
they also may be one in us." 3 

The whole Song is a song of loves, — a 
picture of God's ineffable goodness and con- 
descension, and showing Him to be the one 
only God and Saviour, the Husband and the 
Head of His Church. 

In the curse pronounced on woman in the 

1 Revelation xxii. 17. 2 Ibid. xix. 9. 

3 John xvii. 20, 21. 



148 ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 

" Fall," she was told that " her desire was to 
be ever toward her husband.'' 1 In the Re- 
demption the curse was removed when Christ 
honored woman by calling His Church His 
bride ; and now with joy and affection she 
can say, " His desire is toward me." Christ 
yearns after His Church more than she can 
possibly desire Him. A loving bridegroom 
loves his bride as his own body, and the Song 
has taught us that Christ loves His Church 
with a fulness which is above all human 
love. 

If in all the walks of life the Church is ever 
clinging to her Bridegroom, and His hand is 
holding her, and leading her, she will find 
that as a shepherd leads his flock into green 
pastures and beside still waters, so He is lead- 
ing her. Whether she is herself at work in 
her garden, or whether she is superintending 
the workmen in the vineyard, He is by her 
side giving her wisdom, strength, and guid- 
ance. When He goes with her in her jour- 
neys for pleasure and recreation, He will take 

1 Genesis iii. 16. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 49 

her where she can breathe the invigorating 
air of mountains of joy and her eyes can feast 
on the beauties of the valleys. He will pro- 
tect her from dangers that lie in her path, 
and from the wild beasts that lurk about to 
destroy her. Her soul will be fed with the 
richest and the choicest of food, for He will 
take her to feed among the lilies. He will 
give her grapes from the vineyard, dates from 
the palm-tree, golden apples, pomegranates, 
figs, and nuts, and droppings from the honey- 
comb ; and her drink will be wine and milk 
without money and without price ; for as His 
bride she will feast with Him, and He with 
her. But if she forgets Him, and does not 
let Him in when He knocks, affliction and 
trouble will overtake her, darkness will sur- 
round her until she feels her loss, and goes 
and seeks Him, and then He will be found 
of her, and He will receive her back to His 
loving embrace. 

For those devout souls who love Him fer- 
vently this Song is a bright and heavenly 
light to lead them into greater confidence 



I5'0 ECHOES FROM THE SOXG OF SONGS. 

and trust in Him who has taken them into 
such a close union. Christ has made the 
Church one with Himself, that she might be 
" a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle 
or any such thing." 1 Washed in the blood 
of the Lamb, and thus cleansed from all 
stains of sins ; " clothed with the garments 
of salvation, covered with the robe of 
righteousness/' 2 her beauties present them- 
selves before Him, so that He exclaims (iv. 7), 

Thou art all fair, my love. 
And there is no spot in thee. 

When the fulness of the Gentiles, and the 
re-entering of the Jews shall be accomplished, 
then will be the consummation of what John 
saw when in Patmos : "And I saw the holy 
city, Xew Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God, made ready as a bride 
adorned for her husband. And I heard a 
great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, 
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He 
shall dwell with them, and they shall be His 

1 Ephesians v. 27. 2 Isaiah lxi. 10. 



ECHOES FROM THE SONG OF SONGS. I 5 I 

peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, 
and be their God ; and He shall wipe away 
every tear from their eyes ; and death shall 
be no more ; neither shall there be mourning, 
nor crying, nor pain, any more : the first 
things are passed away." 1 

1 Revelation xxi. 2-4. 



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